


The Monkshood Flower

by SimplySupreme



Category: One Piece
Genre: And Friendship, Die mad about it, F/F, Found Family, Garp won't let her do it, Gen, Glacially Slow Burn, I make shameless use of tropes, Luffy Being Luffy, Mugiwara no Ichimi | Straw Hat Pirates, OFC is a monk and also blind, OFC is just trying to live her best life, Roronoa Zoro is Bad At Feelings, The Drama, but we love him anyways, even when they hate each other, i've just got a lot of feelings okay?, like hugs, lots and lots of haki, luffy is the best, nico robin deserves good things, oh my it's another OC falling into one piece story, so there's that, that's facts, the crew all love each other, there is no emotion that can't be expressed by screaming, wlw relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2020-10-03 21:50:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 18
Words: 59,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20460050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SimplySupreme/pseuds/SimplySupreme
Summary: When she'd died, Luciana hadn't expected to become a bad cliché and be born again in a fictional universe... but here she was. Still, that didn't mean she had to get involved with stupidly dangerous things like pirates, military regimes, and revolutions. She was perfectly happy living a quiet and peaceful life on the island of her (re)birth, thank you very much!She hadn't counted on getting so attached to Nico Robin though.As it turned out, Luciana hadn't counted on a lot of things that ended up happening anyways. But even though she was blind, that didn't mean she couldn't see the ways she could best protect her nakama; and as her enemies would soon discover, she was a very determined protector.





	1. A Prologue

Luciana was silent as she stared out towards the island swiftly growing larger on the horizon, her one good eye squinting against the harsh reflection of the sun off the water. For the most part, she’d been silent ever since she’d been brought aboard the ship. Not that she’d been very talkative to begin with. There’s really only been one person in the last eleven years of this life that she’d ever really _talked_ to, if she was being honest with herself; but she was gone now –separated from her by miles upon miles of cold ocean waves, and even colder waves of fear and people who would seek to keep them apart.

She stopped her thoughts there. The distance between them was too vast and painful to bear at the moment, and Luciana knew she needed to conserve her strength. They’d see each other again, she knew. They’d _promised_. And if they ever wanted to stay together once that day came, Luciana needed to be strong enough to protect her. To protect them both.

“Enjoying the view, girl?” came the gruffly amused question from behind her, and Luciana’s entire form tensed. She hadn’t sensed him coming; and though he wasn’t a threat at this moment, she harshly chastised herself for getting distracted enough by her own misery to let her guard down around the man who’d taken both her right eye and her truest friend away from her mere weeks before.

Luciana didn’t dare disrespect Vice Admiral Garp by ignoring him though, and answered his question with a curt nod and a soft “It’s finally close enough for me to see it.” He was the only person she’d spoken to at all since he’d taken her, though to their credit a few of the other marines on board the ship had tried.

Garp laughed, and clapped her on the shoulder with a meaty hand that bore more force than any sane person would consciously use against the fragile form of a child. Luciana didn’t buckle beneath the blow though, the majority of its strength dissipating against the protective Haki that flickered over her skin like an invisible suit of armor. Rather than be upset by this however, Garp only laughed harder, which Luciana couldn’t help but resent. The remarkable grasp of Armament and Observation Haki she’d displayed when they met had been what had intrigued Garp about her in the first place, and after what he’d done to her eyes, she’d…

Luciana forced herself to stop thinking about it. Like it or not, her Haki had saved both her and Robin, even if it hadn’t been enough to keep them together. Without it, they’d both be dead or _worse_. And Luciana knew better than anyone how completely death could sever you from the people you love. Garp had shown her what he thought of as mercy.

“You’d best give up on using that eye of yours,” Garp advised her, oblivious to her inner musings. “It won’t heal more than it has, and you don’t need it anyways.”

Luciana said nothing, but nonetheless tied the blindfold she’d taken to wearing back over her eyes and plunging the world back into darkness. Garp was right, of course. She'd been slashed across both eyes with a knife during their fight. She’d lost her right eye entirely, but her left eye had recovered enough that she could now partially see out of it again, albeit her vision with it was extremely poor and obscured by the accumulated scar tissue. She’d never be able to see properly again, she knew, though Luciana was just inclined to be grateful that she hadn’t died from infection.

Observation Haki had been something she was born with. Something she’d worked relentlessly to train with all her life. Luciana didn’t _need_ her eyes to ‘see’, and could in fact ‘see’ better when she wasn’t using them, but still… she’d been terrified when, at first, she thought she’d lost both eyes entirely. And immeasurably grateful when it turned out that even if her vision in her left eye was dim and tunneled and blurred, she at least had _this_. That she could still just _look_ at things if she wanted to. If it was bright. If they were close.

It was a simple pleasure that would only serve to slow her progress in her constant attempt to improve her Haki, Garp had told her as he’d pulled a blindfold tight around her head. Luciana hadn’t argued with him. Both out of fear and because, no matter how much she resented Garp, he was _right_. There was absolutely nothing that mattered more to Luciana in this moment than becoming strong enough to survive this world, so that she and Robin could be reunited again. But that, she knew, would be a long road. And for all she’d lost control of her circumstances, and for all she hated Garp, Luciana knew that he was nothing if not an effective teacher.

Garp gave her a satisfied nod, his presence so powerful in her mind’s eye that it was nearly blinding. “Perhaps it’s for the best you caught a glimpse of the island,” he admitted. “It’s your new home. We’ll be docking at Foosha Village, and you’ll be staying with the same people looking after my grandson.”

Beneath her blindfold, Luciana blinked once as she recalled a story she’d once watched in a youth she’d long surpassed. It had been over eleven years since she’d been reborn into this life, and considering how she’d left her last one… she preferred not to think about her last incarnation too much. She’d known, of course, from a very young age that she was probably in the world of One Piece. Where else could she be, in a world with oceans and pirates and devil fruits? Still, meeting Robin had been a strange experience for her even if over the last few years, she had almost forgotten that she’d once thought of her dearest friend as nothing more than a character in a story.

(It hadn’t taken long at all before Luciana stopped being able to imagine Robin as being anything but the center of her world. She should have realized the moment Garp had introduced himself that no matter what she did, she wouldn’t be able to escape Luffy’s story.)

She’d never thought she’d be introduced to either of Garp’s grandsons so early, if at all. She’d honestly never really wanted to be. But Garp had found and defeated both her and Robin, and had afterwards still honored the deal he’d made with Luciana. So she would honor hers, if nothing else out of fear of what he might do to them should she renege.

Until she turned eighteen, Luciana was in Garp’s custody. If he wanted to leave her here, there wasn’t really anything she could do to change the situation unless she got him to change his mind. (And Luciana rather thought that this would be even more impossible than trying to fight him.)

“Okay,” she responded simply. The very second she turned eighteen, she would leave. But until that day came, there were far worse things Garp could have done with her.


	2. The Beginning

It was a beautiful day outside. Warm and sunny, with a cool sea breeze sweeping up the mountains from the shore. Down in the port as she was, it smelled heavily of salt and brine, and Luciana found herself breathing more deeply than she strictly needed to just to enjoy it. She was eight years old, and had never left the island for all she loved the ocean. She loved Rondia too though, and she loved the little port town at the base of the mountain that made up the center of the island, and loved the monastery she called home at the top of it too. They called her Century here. She’d been dropped off with the monks as an infant –like so many other orphans or unwanted children who no one else had the means to care for—and they’d named her before she could speak to having another name.

Luciana hadn’t corrected them. In the grand scheme of things, keeping the name of a woman who was dead didn’t seem all that important to her at the time. As it was, she hadn’t even begun speaking until she was five, still too traumatized by effectively surviving her own murder.

She often thought that it was incredibly fortunate that she’d been given to the monastery. There was perhaps no better place to build a strong foundation of mental health from scratch. While Luciana didn’t know the identity of her blood family in this life, Century the monk was loved all the same by the other children living with her in the creche as well as by her teachers, the monks. She’d received a better education than many in this world could hope for, both in the basic subjects of literacy, mathematics, and history, but also in subjects that were more practical for the setting as well, such as astronomy and navigation, hand-to-hand combat, and the use of Haki.

They’d named her Century because according to Sister Laika, even as an infant, Luciana’s eyes had seemed old and pained and _tired _of this life, even if she was so new to it. (In this life, Luciana had been fortunate enough to be blessed with being born with some skill in Observation Haki. She’d more than once overheard the other monks worriedly discussing her seeming trauma reactions and depression despite having lived almost her entire life in the safety of the monastery. They’d taken in children who’d acted this way before, albeit older. They constantly worried that Century, like them, could eventually end up harming herself or even taking her own life should these symptoms be left unchecked.)

She couldn’t say she hadn’t been tempted –especially in the beginning—but Luciana had never made a serious attempt at doing so. She’d never been sure why she’d been reborn, nor why she’d been reborn _here _of all places, but she hadn’t quite been able to bring herself to squander the second chance she’d been given. It seemed… unspeakably selfish, somehow, to harm herself when she’d been reborn and so many others never were. And so she found herself –over the years loving care, daily meditation, challenging trainings and general peaceful atmosphere—healing. This wasn’t to say that Luciana would ever get over the events that had ended her last life, but after eight years, she _did _feel ready to say that she thought she could finally move on from them and start a new life here.

Which is what found her down on the docks of Rondia’s port town. Having proven herself amongst the most responsible of her crechemates, on her eighth birthday Century had been assigned the chore of purchasing the day’s fish from the first morning catch each day. Luciana greatly enjoyed this chore, since it afforded her the freedom to wander the town so long as she returned to the monastery in time to help prepare the midday meal. It was typically a time of restfulness and leisure for her, though today was shaping up a bit differently.

Rondia was –as far as these things go—a fairly peaceful island. The island itself was very small and its population low, and it was well off the beaten path. While this meant that pirates often stopped by to re-supply when trying to avoid the Marines, they rarely bothered with attacking the town itself. There simply wasn’t anything of true worth to loot. Those that did anyways were soon set to rights by the warrior monks at the monastery, who were ready to rush to the defense of the town at a moment’s notice with deadly skill. (And the warrior monks of Rondia had a _reputation._) All told, there had only been five serious pirate attacks on the island since Luciana had been born there, none of which had resulted in any long-lasting injuries or property damage on behalf of the Rondians and none of which she, a child, had been allowed to witness or participate in.

There was a first time for everything though. As Luciana approached the docks in her usual way at her usual time, she sensed the commotion with her Haki far sooner than she heard or saw it. She could only liken the sensation to feeling a bit like approaching a hive of bees that, instead of emitting their typical contented low buzz, had suddenly come alive with angry activity. Never had her Observation Haki jangled against her senses so aggressively in this way, and Luciana just _knew _that something was wrong. A fear that she hadn’t felt since her rebirth made her heart stutter in her chest and she broke out into a run, stopping only to grab a couple of sturdy-looking tree branches that she estimated would do well enough as makeshift escrima sticks. They weren’t as balanced or as heavy as the ones they trained with in the monastery, but Luciana assumed that there wasn’t time to go back and get a proper set. (She was entirely certain that none of the adults on the island would want her involved in any sort of combat at this age, but she couldn’t quite think of herself as a child. She certainly wouldn’t be able to live with herself if any of the people she’d come to know in this life that had taken such good care of her were harmed, and she hadn’t even tried to prevent it. Not when she was so close.)

In almost no time at all, the massive ship flying a jolly roger with carrots instead of crossbones came into view docked just off the pier, and Luciana could see a few wisps of smoke beginning to rise from the fishmarket. Much to her relief, the bells in the town square then began to clamor loudly, summoning the warrior monks. She moved with more confidence now, knowing that it was only a matter of time before the other monks got there to help, and plunged right into the heart of the chaos by running straight into the fish market. There was shouting by the pier that she could hear more and more clearly as she grew closer to the pirates, ducking around the civilians running past her in the opposite direction.

“Grab the girl, she can’t have gone far!”

“Kona! Kona, where are you?”

“If you let 79,000,000 beri get away from you like this, I’ll kill you myself.”

“Search the south alleys!”

“Here, over here!”

It was chaotic and frightening. Luciana soon stopped running and ducked behind one of the stalls, staring wide-eyed at the pirates that appeared to be searching behind boxes and into alleys as they spread out from their ship into the town. But what were they looking for?

A girl. She could hear them shouting about it.

Frowning, Luciana stopped running and focused _hard _on expanding her senses. For a moment, she felt lost in a blur of sensation. Thick smoke and racing hearts and flames slowly creeping along dry grass. The rage of the pirates and the fear and confusion of the people in the marketplace and… _there. _Something different. Someone small and fearful, but confident. Powerful. Darting into the alley behind Wharf’s Tavern but not hiding well enough, because two of the pirates were closing in on her, and that alley was a dead end.

For a short moment, Luciana hesitated. Surely the others would be here any minute now, and the girl in the alley didn’t need her help? But her stomach rolled as she remembered the last time _she’d _been followed by two men into an alley, and she knew that she wouldn’t leave this girl to fight on her own no matter what these pirates wanted with her. Gripping her sticks tighter in her hands, she darted across the road, approaching the two pirates from behind at an angle that she roughly judged as least likely for them to see her approach. Luciana couldn’t see the girl yet despite sensing her presence clearly (And she’d never felt anyone who felt quite like _this _before!) but the pirates clearly did.

“Found you, you little whelp,” the one on the left called into the alley with an ugly laugh. The girl inside froze at the sound of his voice.

The pirate on the right was taller and thinner, and had just opened his mouth to no doubt say something similarly classically villainous when Luciana –or rather, Luciana’s makeshift escrima—reached him. Though she as an eight-year-old girl was much smaller than him, a grown man, she’d hit him running at full speed with the skill of someone who’d spent the last three years of their life learning how to take down men exactly like him. (The frequency and intensity of the physical training she’d endured in this life probably would have qualified as some sort of child abuse in her last one; but in a world like this one it was entirely necessary just for situations like these. She was far stronger now than she’d ever imagined a child to be.) Her unfortunate victim’s knee gave beneath her escrima with a sickening crunch –a sound completely unlike the wooden ‘bones’ of the straw training dummies she’d practiced with before. She didn’t stop though, despite how hard her heart was pounding in her chest; and as the man toppled over, she followed through with a blow to the side of the head that smashed his face into the brick wall of the alley.

She ducked then, as the remaining pirate suddenly realized what happened and took a series of swings at her with a cutlass. But Luciana was too small and fast and seemingly preternaturally aware of her surroundings for any of them to land on her. Her sticks connecting with his elbow then forced him to drop the cutlass, and after that it was easy to send him crashing down to the ground next to his friend, bloody and unconscious.

Luciana looked up then, and found herself face to face with the girl the pair had been hunting. If she had to place her age, Luciana would have said she was around ten years old. She was a scrawny thing, seemingly chronically underfed with long gangly limbs and hunger-sharpened features. Her dark hair was tangled and dirty and her clothes old and worn, though seemingly well cared-for. Despite her pitiful appearance however, her eyes –an astonishing blue—were sharp and clear as she scrutinized Luciana with enough intensity that there was no doubt in her mind she was being assessed as a threat.

“Come on,” Luciana told her urgently. “You’re not safe here. Follow me.” She didn’t wait for the girl to respond, merely grabbing both of her sticks in one hand and snatching up the girl’s hand in the other and taking off running out of the alley and down the main road, dodging debris and upturned crates as she went.

Fortunately, the girl didn’t resist and followed Luciana’s lead, not questioning which alleys and side streets she ducked into nor struggling on the two occasions that Luciana abruptly yanked them to a stop and hid just in time for a group of pirates to run past. Less fortunately, this was the moment in which the rest of the warrior monks arrived in force and engaged with the pirates. The noise and chaos increased exponentially as the two groups clashed, and it became simply overwhelming for Luciana’s already-stressed Haki.

A migraine began pounding behind her eyes, and after a few close shaves, she simply wasn’t quick enough on one of her hairpin turns to avoid a particularly large pirate’s grab. She swung viciously at his neck with her escrima as he hoisted her into the air by the by the back of her robes, but could only stare in horror as the wood shattered harmlessly against his thick neck.

Laughing darkly, the man tossed her bodily into a wall. Luciana saw stars as she hit it, and crumpled to the ground with a pained cry. Immediately, she scrambled back to her feet and assumed a fighting pose as best she could despite the blood running into her eyes from a cut on her forehead and a hand she couldn’t quite curl into a fist without hot waves of pain shooting up her arm. The brute had a knife he was brandishing now, and she didn’t doubt he’d hesitate to use it on her simply because she was a child. “Run!” she told the girl, who hadn’t moved from the spot Luciana had shoved her to when she’d sensed the pirate making a lunge for them. She doubted she’d be able to defeat him, but they weren’t far from the edge of the town now. If the girl could make it past the tree line, she’d be safe enough from the pirates until the monks finished fighting.

But the girl didn’t run. Luciana had just braced herself as the pirate lunged at her with his knife when from behind her, the girl finally spoke.

“Tres Fleurs!” she called out in a voice hoarse with running.

For a split second, Luciana was deeply confused. Then, two disembodied arms sprouted from the ground and grabbed the pirate’s ankles while a third pulled his free arm away so he wasn’t able to break his fall. He landed hard, and Luciana thought he’d probably broken his nose with that angle.

Not that she had time to contemplate this. It was now the girl’s turn to grab her hand and run, though Luciana didn’t really shake herself free of her stunned stupor until the girl seemed to hesitate at the next turn, not sure where to go. Luciana retook the lead then, with the goal of finally escaping the close buildings and choking smoke from the fires down by the pier. She’d seen devil fruit powers before, of course. Brother Kina –a monk of over eighty years of age—could turn transform into a sugar glider and various in-between states, and did so often to entertain the children living at the monastery. Last year, she’d met a pirate (of a more friendly disposition than these ones) who could speak with and command rats like some sort of demented pied piper. So it wasn’t that she hadn’t come to terms with people being able to do impossible things. In the grand scheme of things, the ability to grow extra arms wasn’t _that _weird.

It's just that there was only one person that Luciana knew of with this _particular _devil fruit power. Now wasn’t really the ideal time, but even though she’d _known _this was possible it was still a lot to process that she was running for her life with Nico Robin. And that she was actually real and _here. _She was kind of stuck between wanting to fangirl and wanting to cry, neither of which would be an appropriate reaction to the situation at hand.

They ran and ran. Thankfully, it seemed as if the fighting was dying down at this point (or at least concentrating closer to the docks) and the pair of them were able to escape the town and bolt into the forest that bordered it without further violence. Luciana didn’t stop pulling the girl –Robin—behind her though, until they were well out of sight of the town and they were completely alone as far as she could sense, at which point she jogged to a stop and collapsed in an exhausted heap against the trunk of a pine tree, panting.

Robin joined her, and they both silently agreed to take a moment to recover from their sprint. Still, Luciana refrained from speaking even after she’d recovered somewhat, and instead stared blankly into the slivers of blue sky that were visible through the foliage overhead, trying to steady herself mentally. (This was something that, as a monk-in-training, she had become quite good at through sheer necessity.) Existential crisis related to fiction-come-reality aside, today was… a lot. She hadn’t been seriously attacked before in this life, and it had been a frightening experience to put it mildly.

“I didn’t need your help, you know.”

Luciana startled a little when Robin finally spoke. The other girl was eyeing her tensely. Suspiciously. Still propped up against the tree trunk, but very clearly prepared to start running again at a moment’s notice. Luciana felt a pang of sorrow, looking at the face of this frightened child and thinking about the kind of life she must have lived after having lost everything and everyone she ever loved before being cast adrift, alone, on the merciless seas. It was both horrifying and humbling to contemplate.

“I didn’t know you had a devil fruit when I first saw you,” Luciana admitted in response to Robin’s statement, shrugging a little. “But that’s okay. At least this way, you didn’t have to fight them alone, yeah?”

Robin stared at her some more, and Luciana stared back. “What’s your name?” Robin finally asked.

“Century Luciana, but you can call me Lucy,” she answered promptly. Technically, as a monk, Century was her _only _name, not her family name. But it was a bit of a mouthful, and kind of odd to say in a sentence. She liked Lucy better. She would still be Luciana no matter how many times she was reborn, and this was as good a chance as any to start using the name again. Everyone else on the island had known her only as Century for far too long to change easily now, but Robin was new.

Robin made a face.

“What?” Luciana asked, frowning.

“Nothing,” Robin said with a shrug and sidelong glance towards Luciana’s nonexistence hairline. “I just thought you were a boy.”

Luciana scowled and rubbed a hand over her bald scalp self-consciously. “I’m a monk, we _all _look like this,” she defended.

“Even those weird clothes?”

“They’re _robes._”

“That’s a yes, then.”

Luciana frowned even harder. “Well what’s your name then, if you’re so girly?” she demanded petulantly.

“Araho Wren,” Robin answered back with an ease that spoke of practice.

Were Luciana _actually_ only eight years old, she might have bought that answer. As it was, she just snorted in amusement. “Alright then, Miss Obviously-not-a-fake-name… I mean, _Wren_. Are you running away from everyone, or just pirates?”

Now it was Robin’s turn to scowl, but she soon slumped her shoulders a bit dejectedly as her thoughts turned back to her predicament. “Everyone,” she admitted. “Those pirates were supposed to take me to the Opal Archipelago but…”

“…they tried to hurt you instead,” Luciana finished the thought when it seemed as if Robin had finished talking. The other girl just nodded in response, her small fists clenching. “So… I guess you probably don’t want to come back to the monastery with me,” Luciana concluded.

Robin huffed out a breathy laugh. “No, I don’t think they’d like that much.”

“Why?”

She hesitated. “Someone lied, and now everyone thinks I’ve done something really bad,” she finally answered, clearly having carefully doctored her response.

“I’m not a baby, you can tell me,” Luciana insisted, arms crossed.

Robin rolled her eyes and scoffed. “How old are you, seven?”

“Eight!”

“Still too young then,” she shot back.

“How old are _you _then, since you’re so grown-up?” Luciana asked. And she was genuinely curious. She wondered how long this girl had been living on the run, all on her own.

Thankfully, it appeared that Robin was more willing to answer this question than the question about her name. “Eleven,” she replied, and Luciana felt that this was probably an honest answer.

“That’s not _that _old!” she screeched in outrage. “Come on, tell me! I promise not to tell. Pinky swear.” She thrust out a bloodied hand, pinky extended.

Robin rolled her eyes again but obliged, sprouting an arm from the ground in front of them and looping its pinky with Luciana’s, causing her to giggle. “Some of the grown-ups on my island found out a secret,” she said with a faint smile in response to Luciana’s laughter, before growing more serious again. “Some really powerful people realized what happened, so in order to make sure no one learned the secret they…” She swallowed convulsively. “They killed everyone on the whole island, and burned everything to the ground. I got away, but now they’re chasing me because… they think I know the secret too.”

Luciana knew better than to pry further. Now wasn’t the time. “I’m sorry that happened to you,” she said quite seriously, capturing Robin’s disembodied hand between her own and squeezing it tightly. “You can hide here, if you want.”

Robin blinked, her eyes locked onto their clasped hands but making no move to dissipate the arm or pull it away. “In this forest?” she asked, clearly confused.

Luciana shrugged. “Why not?” she asked. “No grown-ups live here, and I even know a place for you to stay!” The thought gave her energy and she leapt to her feet, offering a hand to help Robin up (which was studiously ignored) and the older girl followed. Intellectually, Luciana knew that Nico Robin would be fine on her own. Relatively, anyways. She knew she’d at least live long enough to become a part of the Straw-Hat’s crew so long as everything happened the way it did in the anime. But she was also extremely sure that the next seventeen years Nico Robin would have to spend on her own on a desperate hunt for the poneglyphs would be hard on her. Harder than any child should have to endure to be sure, and definitely more traumatic than Luciana could stomach thinking about now that she’d actually _met _her.

“Where are we going?” And oh, Robin sounded so very tired. Not that she could blame her.

Luciana just sent her a small smile and a ‘You’ll see!’ as she led on. The treehouse wasn’t too far, positioned about halfway between the monastery and the town in the branches of a gnarled old sycamore tree. “Two of the older kids at the monastery built this,” Luciana explained as they approached and she observed Robin’s eyes light with interest once she’d spotted it. “They left the island about two years ago now. Got married and jumped on the first ship to a port city that they could find, I guess.” She shrugged, paused at the base of the trunk, then took a leap onto the lowest branch and began to climb, her words puffing out irregularly now with the exertion. “Never told anybody about it ‘cept me, of course. Sister Lidia was the one who found my at the front doors anyways, so I was always her favorite and she was mine. I think she and Pol felt bad leaving, so they brought me here and said this place was mine if I ever wanted it. Privacy’s kind of hard to come by in the monastery.”

With a grunt of effort, Luciana pushed open the hatch in the floor and crawled her way up inside, Robin close behind her. The treehouse wasn’t very big, but it was well-built enough to withstand whatever exertions a pair of horny teenage monks could put it through without adult supervision, so Luciana didn’t doubt it was safe enough. There were even oilskins to pull over the windows in case of rain, and a stack of blankets and some water and snacks in one corner that she’d brought up her on days she liked to curl up inside and read quietly, relishing in the isolation.

“Well,” she asked, “what do you think?”

Robin gave her the first of many of her genuine smiles. “It’s perfect.”


	3. Teacher

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all, I've been on a bit of a spree, so here's another chapter. PLEASE be aware that I'm not posting these linearly, so don't freak out! If you have questions about a specific period of time, I'll probably be coming back to it.

Luffy had come to them as an overemotional seven-year-old, already wearing his straw hat on his head and a ropey scar under his left eye. By that time, Luciana had already been looking after Ace for four _very _long years.

He still didn’t like her much.

As Vice Admiral Garp had rowed her from the ship towards Foosha Village for the first time, he’d told her that he expected her to stay with his grandson Ace and act has both his teacher and protector until she reached eighteen. To train him into being a good marine. Luciana had been careful not to let any of the doubt she felt inside as to the impossibility of this task leak onto her expression, and had simply accepted it. Garp had then marched her through the forest until they’d reached Dadan’s doorstep, pounded on the door, and had informed the bandit woman once she’d opened it that Luciana was his granddaughter who he was leaving here to look out for Ace.

Then he’d left.

None of the bandits nor Ace himself had really taken her arrival well. The bandits because they’d anticipated that the scraggly-looking blind girl with a boy’s hair cut that had been dumped with them would be a burden and just another mouth to feed, and Ace because… well, Luciana had never really quite been sure. Even at six, Ace was an unhappy child. Dadan and her crew weren’t exactly what she’d describe as_warm and fuzzy_, and though they were mindful that Ace had food on his plate and a safe place to sleep at night, he didn’t have much more than that and was largely left to his own devices.

In hindsight, Luciana reflected that her mistake was probably allowing him to see how sorry she felt for him. Ace didn’t like having her around. He didn’t like having to share his room with a girl, and he didn’t like that she insisted on following him around, trying to convince him to learn how to read. (Luciana herself couldn’t read anymore unless she held the book extremely close to her remaining eye and had a lot of time and patience to waste doing it. Even then, reading was hit or miss for her. She missed it –and Robin—more than words could say. It made her almost irrationally angry that Ace, with his perfect vision, could so casually disregard the skill as something he didn’t need.) But mostly, Ace didn’t like the fact that they were now “siblings” according to Garp, and that Luciana kept trying to bond with him.

She’d been so very lonely.

Robin, Rondia, her family at the monastery, and her vision: all snatched away from her in a single day, and she’d been left _here_. It was nothing like home, in all the worst ways, and Luciana _ached_. Some days, she wondered if this was how Robin had felt after the destruction of Ohara. (She’d then scold herself fiercely in the same breath. Of _course _this wasn’t how Robin had felt. Robin and everyone else Luciana cared about were still alive, after all.)

After a few months of futile efforts born of kindness, Luciana was ashamed to say she’d given up on gaining a brother. Garp had brought her here to be a teacher first, sibling second. At least, this was what she told herself after Ace had yelled at her yet again to get lost. He clearly wasn’t interested in getting to know her as a sister, so from that point on she’d begun to treat him as a pupil instead.

Shockingly, this worked far better than any number of kind words or smiles ever could have. The only way that Luciana knew how to teach was the way the monks had taught her. That is, by cornering Ace after breakfast one morning and beating the living shit out of him while shouting helpful tips until he learned to fight back. Luciana had greatly resented her teachers in her younger years; but apparently Ace was some kind of insane, because after that, he _respected _her. It made her feel nauseous to think about it, but Ace began learning what she had to teach him under threat of her fists, sticks, and quarterstaff.

It only made sense, she tried to justify it to herself. Ace hadn’t grown up in a loving home. He’d likely had absolutely no idea how to respond to some random girl suddenly offering him gentleness and kindness. He’d been fighting all his life. Every experience he’d ever had with someone older than him had taught him that only people with _strength _got what they wanted in this world. He had absolutely no reason to listen to someone he thought of as weak.

This reasoning didn’t make her feel less guilty about essentially horrifically abusing a child.

So until Luffy arrived, Luciana wouldn’t have chanced to say that Ace _liked _her. Half the time, she was chasing him through the forest and fighting –or rather, beating—him once she caught him. (And since she’d lost her eyesight, her Observation Haki had improved exponentially to a level that Luciana frankly found incredible. She _always _caught him.) The other half of the time they spent together she spent teaching him to read and write, do basic math, understand basic history and politics, and to meditate. He hated these tasks however, which forced her to monitor him closely lest he attempt to sneak away.

Garp visited every few months, and thought their routine to be enormously funny. When he was there, their games of chase involved _Luciana _running for her life for a change. He always caught her and Ace both, of course, but she had a vested interest in avoiding his Fist of Love for as long as humanly possible. These games were some of the few times where she and Ace were in complete agreement about working together on something.

She wasn’t always cruel though. Luciana knew a fair bit about medicine (having been well-read on the subject in both of her lives) and took great care to tend to both her and Ace’s injuries very gently each night before bed. If they went out hunting together she always gave him the biggest portion of the meat, as well as the lion’s share of whatever fruits or vegetables she managed to collect during the day’s excursions. She shielded him almost completely from Dadan and the others’ temper –be that expressed via words or fists—and made sure to keep him as generally clean as she could manage. (If this involved throwing the boy into a cold river when he was being particularly annoying, who was she to turn down an opportunity to teach him good personal hygiene?) She even left him to his own devices for three days a week while she went off to train by herself.

It was during this time, she knew, that Ace met with Sabo. She didn’t begrudge them their friendship. A part of her resented that he could bond so well with someone else, of course, but Luciana knew that it wasn’t fair to have expected Ace to accept her like she’d wanted. She was five years older than he was after all, which to a child seemed like an immeasurable gap. And she certainly hadn’t been in a very good place emotionally when they’d first met. She wasn’t in a good place emotionally _now _if she were being honest. But Luciana wasn’t worried about wanting to die anymore, well aware that there were few motives more powerful than spite. (And she was filled with _so much spite._)

She hadn’t been idle since she’d been forced into this role. Luciana had never planned to involve herself with the plot. She’d have been perfectly content to spend the rest of her days living in the monastery where she’d grown up, leading a happy and relatively peaceful life. Garp had taken that decision out of her hands though, when he’d taken her eyes (and the rest of her too, while he was at it).

So it all came down to this. Luciana would do anything to reunite with Robin again, but she wasn’t naïve. The scholars of Ohara had made an enemy of the World Government when Robin was only eight years old, and they’d never stop gunning for her so long as she was alive. So in order to keep Robin safe –in order to keep the promise she’d made to her so long ago—Luciana would need to be able to face them down and _win. _And there was only one crew she knew of that she trusted to do it without becoming the very monsters they hated. Luciana decided very early on that she would help Luffy to become the King of the Pirates.

The fact that this was probably Garp’s worst nightmare was only a delicious side bonus.

So the day that Garp dragged Luffy to their doorstep in much the same way he’d dragged Luciana there four years ago came as something of a relief. She accepted Garp’s instructions to teach Luffy the same way she’d been teaching Ace without comment other than an assenting nod, and didn’t move to interfere when Ace spat on him.

Ace might not ever be _her _brother, but she hoped that he could still be Luffy’s. Luffy, she’d come to realize in her time knowing Ace, was the one who would teach Ace kindness.

In teaching Luffy, however, Luciana hit a bit of a roadblock. Armament Haki was taught through violence, which Luffy didn’t respond to in the same way as Ace did. Being made of rubber, none of Luciana’s blows really hurt him and she refused to hit any harder. (There were lines that even she wouldn’t cross.) Ace had managed a bit of it from time to time, but was unable to use it consistently, so she supposed it didn’t really matter all that much yet. But she despaired of teaching either Observation Haki. Neither boy had the patience for meditation (Luffy straight up fell asleep instantly, every time she sat him down to try.) and despite understanding this form of Haki more intimately than any of the three, Luciana wasn’t sure how else to unlock it in another person.

She flat-out refused to attempt to force either boy to unlock Conqueror’s Haki. She simply couldn’t inflict the sort of trauma onto someone else that Garp had inflicted onto her. They’d suffer enough without her help.

Luffy was an interesting student. When he wasn’t following helplessly after an increasingly irritated Ace during their down time, he seemed to enjoy Luciana’s company well enough. Even when she was violently teaching him how to fight. Or worse, _read. _He was a sweet boy at heart, and eager to please. But he was also –and this was perhaps putting it mildly—a complete pain in the ass. Perhaps having seen the show, Luciana should have expected Luffy to be… well, _Luffy_. It was a completely different experience witnessing it in person though, and especially now that Luciana was beginning to feel terrified for her boys.

For however complicated their relationships with her were, she _did _love them. She didn’t want them to experience the cruelties of the world too soon. Not like she and Robin had.

She knew they would anyways.

Ace, as the son of Gol D. Roger, had been born with a death sentence already hanging over his head. Luffy, as the son of the Revolutionary Dragon, didn’t have it much better.

So she was glad when, as hard as it was for her to stay away and do nothing when Luffy was being tortured by Porchemy, the incident ended with Ace, Sabo, and Luffy finally beginning to form a real friendship that would eventually become a brotherhood.

Porchemy is the first person Luciana ever kills. She’d followed Luffy following Ace (and neither had noticed her doing so despite her training them, much to her frustration) and had forced herself to stay close by to witness Luffy’s encounter with the man, as well as his rescue thanks to Ace and Sabo. (And if there was one thing she _was _proud of teaching them, it was the ability to fight and _win. _She even saw Sabo using a move that she knew Ace had learned specifically from her, and the thought of her lessons being valued enough to be passed on made her chest feel warm.)

She hadn’t followed the boys afterwards, and had instead moved in on Porchemy as he recovered from the beating the boys had given him. He didn’t notice her until she was very close, and even then didn’t really pay her any mind as he took his first few steps down the street on his way to meet Bluejam. She didn’t cut a very imposing figure, despite the quarterstaff she carried with her. At fifteen years of age, she had yet to reach full adult size despite her unusually high muscle mass, and the blindfold she still wore around her eyes (her vision was poor enough that it wasn't worth the stares at her scars to take it off) marked her as blind, which in this world was more often than not a death sentence.

Fortunately for Luciana –and _un_fortunately for Porchemy—she’d long since been able to use her Haki to compensate for her disability. (Because Haki was like a muscle, and the more you used it, the stronger you became.) She’d also spent the last several years of her life training absolutely _relentlessly _to become very good at killing.

“Whaddaya want, beggar?” Porchemy finally spat at her when it became clear that she was approaching him in such a way as to block his path. He was certainly a large man, but to Luciana’s sight, his spirit was weak. She wasn’t impressed. She’d thought about letting him go on his way, earlier. Bluejam would kill him just as dead as she would, she knew, and she’d never –not once—attacked another person with the intent to kill without first being attacked herself. She still wasn’t sure she wanted to. But that was the attitude that had cost her an eye. That was the attitude that had cost her Robin, and might one day cost her Ace and Luffy. She couldn’t let that kind of weakness live inside her anymore, and she certainly couldn’t let the kind of weak man that would torture a child for information live any longer than necessary either.

Luciana gave him a sweet smile. “I want you dead.”

The next day when she woke both Ace and Luffy up for breakfast, Luciana packed up an extra portion in a bag, which she handed to Ace before shoving him out the front door and tossing Luffy out behind him. “Go get Sabo,” she told the boys firmly. “If you three are going to be picking fights with pirates, he needs to learn too.”

“WOAH!” Luffy exclaimed, his rubbery jaw falling farther than a normal human’s could have. “How’d you know about Sabo? And Porchemy?”

Luciana laughed. Ace hadn’t looked surprised by her knowing about his friend and yesterday’s adventure (he’d long since learned that even if Luciana couldn’t see, she could see _everything_, sometimes even before it happened), but jumped in shock at the unfamiliar sound and stared at her with confused eyes. It was, she realized with a pang of quiet regret, quite possibly the first time she’d laughed in front of him.

But she didn't want to unpack that right now. “I could teach you how to do it too if you’d stop falling asleep during meditation,” she pointed out to Luffy, quite reasonably in her opinion.

Luffy pouted. “But Ana, that’s _boring_.”

“Then I guess it’ll stay a mystery then,” she concluded, not at all phased. Little Luffy just wasn’t cut out for it yet. “Now get going. If you’re not back in an hour, I’m coming to get you and you won’t like how I do it.”

Both Ace and Luffy took the threat seriously and took off almost immediately. “Wow, a mystery power!” Luffy exclaimed as he did so.

Luciana ignored Ace’s irritated sigh and the accompanying sound of a hand slapping rubber as she walked into the trees to wait for the boys. She’d murdered a man yesterday. It’d been easier than trying to catch Ace had been when he was eight, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about it. Not great to be sure, but… she’d needed to do it. She needed to know that she’d be able to become a protector. She needed to be able to do this _right. _Because those boys were worth protecting.


	4. An Ending

The day the Marines finally caught up to the wanted fugitive Nico Robin, she’d been living in Luciana’s tree house for three years.

Looking back, Luciana was quite sure the blame for everything that happened that day rested at her feet. Robin had wanted them to leave. Had begged her to go with her even, for months. But Luciana had insisted that everything would be fine so long as they stayed on Rondia –had in all honestly been too afraid to leave the home she loved so much—and had refused to go. Robin refused to leave without her.

“You made a promise, remember?” Robin had reminded her lightly in the manner of an older child humoring the whims of a younger one when Luciana had timidly suggested that if she really, _really _wanted to leave, they could do so. “How will you protect me on the open seas if you left here before you were ready?”

She’d known that Robin wanted to leave. She could see it in the way her lips pinched and anxious wrinkles appeared at the corners of her eyes as she constantly scanned the horizon for approaching ships as the months wore on. Luciana had _known _that Robin hadn’t pushed her too hard on leaving because she wouldn’t wish the prospect of never seeing their home again on _anyone_, much less her best friend. She’d been immensely grateful for it. More so for the fact that she didn’t just set out on her own one day, leaving Luciana behind.

It was a _stupid _thing to be grateful for.

Luciana could quite honestly say that there wasn’t a person or thing in the world that she’d ever loved as much as she loved Nico Robin. Offering to let the other girl stay in the tree house was the best decision she’d ever made, and despite how everything had turned out, it was the one thing she couldn’t bring herself to regret. She couldn’t _ever_ regret Robin.

Every morning when she went to buy the fish for her daily chores, she set off at a dead sprint. It rarely took her even an hour to get to the market, buy the fish, and to run up to the base of the tree where she’d then have the rest of the morning to spend with her guest. At first, Robin had been wary of her. She’d gone by a false name, and never answered any personal questions at all. Luciana hadn’t been deterred, and had faithfully continued to visit her in the mornings and on Sundays (her day off) for weeks. She often brought food and fresh water along with her, along with little presents like fresh clothes, candles, a comb, or books to read that she’d borrowed from the monastery library. And despite Robin’s initial reservations, the two of them got along like a house on fire.

Their friendship _truly _began on a Sunday, six weeks after they first met. Luciana had brought a book on local medicinal herbs, and she and Robin had spent the day wandering the forest together in search of some to collect so Robin could sell them to the local apothecary in town.

“My name isn’t really Wren, you know,” Robin had said out of the blue as they walked side by side.

Luciana had simply nodded. “I know.”

She’d have been perfectly content to leave it at that, but it seemed that Robin had finally decided that she could be trusted. Over the course of that day, she’d told Luciana _everything. _Luciana doubted that Robin had intended to release so much information at once; but once she’d started, it had all come out in a veritable flood that left the girl pale and shaking with emotion.

Not that she blamed her. Luciana could unreservedly say that the events Robin had lived through were absolutely beyond the pale. So much so that she honestly wasn’t sure how she’d kept functioning all this time, especially considering how hard it had been for her to survive on the run since then. She’d been (and was still being, she reminded herself) hunted like an animal through unforgiving seas awash with unforgiving people. Only eleven years old, and Robin had suffered trauma after trauma without respite and was somehow still standing.

Luciana knew enough about herself to know with complete certainty that she would not have survived were she in Robin’s place. One way or another, she’d have died a long time ago.

But not Robin. Robin was the most incredible person that Luciana had ever met, in any life. Not only for her immense strength of heart, but for her strength of mind as well. She was quite literally a _genius. _Luciana had known this before, of course, but knowing that someone was smart was miles away from actually witnessing that intelligence in action. Luciana herself could speak and write in three languages. Robin knew _thirteen _so far, and she was only eleven!

Luciana was often left in awe of Robin.

Which was one of _many _reasons why she should have left with her when she’d asked. But she’d been frightened that she wasn’t as strong as Robin. Terrified that if she left the safety of Rondia, that this world would chew her up and spit her body back out into the crushing depths of the ocean and Luciana would have as little to show for having lived this life as she had her last. For all that Luciana treasured Robin above anything… she didn’t want to die. She didn’t want _Robin _to die either, or to have to return to the people and places that had done her such harm. It was silly, but she almost thought that they could hide away from the world here. She wanted them to be able to be like this –tucked happily away in a fantasy land where they could live peacefully in a treehouse in a forest—forever.

“I swear to you Robin,” she’d told her that day, her chest full to bursting with emotion, “I’ll always protect you. As long as I’m with you, I won’t ever let anyone hurt you again. I promise.”

Luciana would never forget that promise. She’d never forget the way Robin had looked at her then either. With disbelief and awe and _love _and most of all, as if she _believed _her.

Because for whatever reason –loneliness maybe, or perhaps the sheer novelty of encountering a person who was decent enough to show kindness to a child even if that child was worth 79,000,000 beri—Robin loved Luciana too. They told each other quite often in fact, and Luciana was under no illusion that Robin would have stayed with her for so long otherwise. It made her feel warm to think about it.

When they were together, Luciana could honestly say she was happier than she’d ever been. But no matter how well Robin was hidden, three years was a dangerously long time.

Long enough for the little things to start adding up. Rumors about a girl with black hair being seen in the woods after an attack by pirates searching for a runaway. Rumors about a similar child occasionally appearing unaccompanied in town to sell wild mushrooms and herbs, and to buy supplies. A story about how once, when little Tashi had nearly fallen from the stone bridge and drowned, the bridge itself had grown a pair of arms that had pulled the toddler to safety. Whispers that a witch-girl was living alone in the forest. Nothing that the average Marine would think were anything more than just that: rumors. But enough that someone as crazy as Monkey D. Garp would find it worth looking into once he heard the stories while passing through.

Luciana had been the first one to sense him coming, her Observation Haki all but _screaming _at her the moment he’d entered her range. She’d jerked upright from where she’d been lounging on the floor of the treehouse next to Robin, the book she’d been reading falling from her hands with atypical carelessness. “We have to move,” she’d said in response to Robin’s sharp glance. “Someone’s coming.”

They’d run; but as Luciana would soon learn, it was next to impossible to run from Garp once he’d decided he wanted to catch you. The chase had been almost embarrassingly short. Terrifyingly so, considering that Luciana had no way of knowing who the man was at the time.

“Well what have we here?” the Marine that had chased them with such unerring accuracy –high ranking, judging from his uniform and incredible amounts of power that she could sense rolling off him in waves—had laughed as he and his twenty flunkies had finally cornered them. “Nico Robin! I can’t say I expected to find you on Rondia, of all places.”

“Doce Fleur: Clutch!” had been Robin’s only response. Her arms had flowered onto existence on two of the Marines plus the commander himself. The flunkies had crumpled like stacks of cards beneath her grip, their bones crunching horribly. The high-ranking Marine hadn’t even so much as twitched as her disembodied hands strained against him though, and merely laughed as he gestured for one of his underlings to fire a sea prism net in Robin’s direction.

Luciana had caught it midair, then used it to strangle three more of the Marines into unconsciousness while Robin continued her efforts to incapacitate him. Some of the other Marines fired weapons at them both, but Luciana put her body between Robin and the bullets and let them bounce off of her in a swirl of black energy. (Just because she’d spend the last three years being afraid, didn’t mean she’d spent them idle. When she wasn’t with Robin, she’d been working tirelessly to master the two forms of Haki she had available to her, well aware that an eventual encounter such as this one was a distinct probability.)

The commanding Marine had looked at them as if they were cute. He then launched a net at Robin himself from a gun at his side that Luciana hadn’t seen. This one had hit, and Robin collapsed in the stranglehold of the sea prism nearly instantly.

“Robin!” Luciana had gasped, dread pounding away inside of her in time with the frantic staccato of her pulse. She’d leaped off of her most recent victim towards her fallen friend with the intention of freeing her, but it seemed that their attacker had lost patience with her efforts. More casually than he would have swatted a fly, the man took her sight. One moment, he was standing thirty feet away with the net launcher still in his grasp. The next, he was in Luciana’s path with a small knife in hand, and with merely a flick of his wrist had shattered her Armament Haki and sliced jaggedly across her eyes.

Aside from dying, Luciana didn’t think she’d ever felt such pain.

“LUCY!” Robin screamed from somewhere to her left as she crumpled to the ground. Luciana couldn’t tell from where exactly. She couldn’t _see. _Everything was so confusing. Lost in a scramble of white-hot agony and fear and a horrible, all-encompassing darkness. She clutched at her ruined face and _screamed, _but nothing seemed to help, and she could _feel _Robin’s fear radiating all around her and bouncing off the trees, and hear the flunkies that they’d left alive cocking their weapons and preparing to fire and _that man _was getting closer to Robin and…

No.

That was really her only coherent thought as it felt like something inside her chest –a rib maybe?—cracked, and her spirit nearly left her body entirely with her rage. She just wanted these men to _stop_.

And incredibly, they did.

Just like that, fifteen grown men –trained soldiers—collapsed senseless where they stood. Only one man –the commander—stayed standing. And though Luciana couldn’t see him, she heard his boots stop crunching on the ground. He’d stopped. And then he turned.

“Please,” Luciana begged him, sensing her chance and unable to do anything else. She couldn’t think. She could barely _breathe. _She certainly couldn’t fight anymore. She hadn’t felt so helpless since… but this, now, with Robin’s life on the line instead of her own? This was scarier. “_Please_, let her go.”

“You’re a talented little thing, aren’t you?” the Marine asked, sounding pleasantly surprised and completely ignoring her pleas. “You don’t look like much. I hadn’t expected it of you.”

Struggling not to vomit or pass out, Luciana attempted to get back onto her feet. It didn’t go so well. Her sense of balance was completely overwhelmed by the pain, and she staggered and dropped onto her knees. “Please let her go,” she repeated. “She’s just a child.”

The Marine barked out a laugh. “You both are,” he pointed out. “And yet here she is, the Devil’s own child. And here _you _are, aiding and abetting a known criminal. There’s nothing you could offer me to convince me to spare you, so why even try?”

Luciana swallowed. “You’re right,” she admitted. “The only thing I have to offer you is my life for hers. So please, take _me _instead, and let her go.”

The Marine laughed even harder, this time. “I have both of you now! Why should I let her go?”

“Because I’m worth more alive than I am dead!” Luciana finally snapped. “Because she’s my friend, and I’d do _anything _to save her.”

A long pause. “You’re blind now, girl.” But he wasn’t laughing, now. He sounded more thoughtful than anything.

“I don’t need my eyes to see.”

Silence fell over them for one moment. Then two.

“I don’t enjoy killing children,” the Marine finally admitted. “If you come with me now, I’ll walk away from her. Just this once. But know that until you’re no longer a child, you’ll be _my _responsibility and you’ll do as I say. No ward of mine will associate with criminals like _her, _and if I ever see Nico Robin again I’ll kill her. No matter her age.”

A curious mixture of horror, relief, and incredulity washed over her then, and Luciana swayed where she knelt. That was it, then. The sacrifice play. She could scarcely believe her own ears that her desperate pleas for mercy from a _Marine _had worked. Even half-delirious and definitely going into shock (she was sweaty and shivering and oh-so-very dizzy) she knew she couldn’t waste this chance.

Robin was depending on her. It didn’t matter what happened to Luciana at this point. She’d made a _promise. _She meant to keep it.

“Okay,” she croaked. “Okay.”

“Say your goodbyes then. You’ve got thirty seconds,” he said gruffly.

Luciana didn’t argue, and scrambled in the approximate direction of where she’d last seen Robin trapped beneath the sea prism net. She didn’t bother with trying to stand and merely crawled. “Robin,” she breathed. “Robin!”

The girl didn’t respond. Luciana realized she must have passed out at some point. Probably through a combination of the sea prism weakening her and then being hit with Luciana’s unfocused burst of Conquerer’s Haki. (And the fact that she could now use _that _particular skill was something she’d unpack later.) With fumbling fingers, she pulled the net away from her friend and pressed bloody hands to her shoulders, shaking her. “Robin, wake up!”

“L—Lucy,” Robin murmured. She stirred a little, but didn’t seem to regain consciousness fully, still groggy. The sea prism still too close to her, perhaps.

Luciana choked back a sob. It would have to do. They were almost out of time. “We’ll see each other again one day,” she whispered, gently dropping her gory face onto Robin’s chest. The feel of it steadily rising and falling felt almost as good as a painkiller at the moment. “Promise me. _Promise _me.”

“Wha—? ”

“_Promise _me, Bobby!”

There was a short silence between them, as Robin struggled to wake up a little and process what Luciana wanted from her. “…Promise.”

That was good enough. Luciana sagged with relief. “Goodbye,” she gasped even as she felt the Marine’s hands grab around her waist and pull her away from Robin and into his arms. He started to walk away, leaving both Robin and his fallen comrades where they lay. Though only Robin was conscious.

“Lucy?” Robin called out, confused. She still sounded only half-awake, not sure why she’d suddenly been abandoned. “Lucy??”

But the Marine had started running now, and Luciana was fading rapidly now that the adrenaline in her system was dying down. She didn’t even have the energy to support herself in this stranger’s bridal carry, much less the strength to call back to her over the increasing distance between them. And soon enough, Luciana couldn’t hear Robin any longer. Her absence felt like a knife to the heart.

“What’s your name?” the man asked her curiously, seemingly unaffected by the scene he’d just witnessed.

“L—Luciana,” she stammered. “Century Luciana.” It didn’t occur to her to lie to him. She didn’t think it would have mattered if it had.

“Vice Admiral Monkey D. Garp,” the man introduced himself. Luciana nearly choked at the name. “Pleased to meet ya.”

This time, Luciana really _did _pass out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please feed the author your comments... I am Thirsty for validation.


	5. Sister

Some things, Luciana thought bitterly, must be fate.

She’d killed Bluejam when he’d dared to try and threaten her boys. How could she not? She was their sister, after all. (Sake of the covenant was thicker than the water of the womb, in this case.) In her time since officially being introduced to him, Luciana had come to love Sabo just as much as she cared for Ace and Luffy, so she certainly wasn’t about to let some filthy pirate force him back to his awful family when he clearly didn’t want to go.

“He was after _me_,” Sabo had whispered to her that night in the safety of their shared bedroom, curled into her left side tightly while Ace and Luffy were pressed, snoring, against her right. “I put you all in danger because my family hired him to bring me back. If you hadn’t been there Ana…” he trailed off with a small sniffle.

Luciana grimaced. Ace and Sabo were still so young. Only twelve. But too smart to lie to, Sabo especially. He had always been her most eager student. The one she’d bonded with the most easily, and the one who had suggested that Ace and Luffy include her in the sake ritual to become siblings. (And hadn’t it been a surprise when Ace had actually agreed to it! Luffy she’d expected it from, but Ace… she wasn’t ashamed to admit she’d started crying when he’d looked her right in the eye –or blindfold, as it were—and said they might as well make it official.)

“You’re right,” she’d told Sabo in a low voice, so as not to wake the others. “They won’t stop sending people after you until they get what they want. I can protect you, but I won’t always be here. I’ll come back to visit as often as I can, but once I’m eighteen I can’t stay on the island anymore. Garp would bring me to join the Marines, and I’ll die first,” she said matter-of-factly. “So what are you gonna do about it?”

He hadn’t answered her until the next morning.

Somewhere in the whole mess, Sabo apparently got the idea that he needed to join the Revolutionaries once he grew up. To fight against people like his blood family. (They weren’t his _real _family. His real family was her and Ace and Luffy, and Luciana would never stop believing that.) At the time, Luciana had approved of the sentiment. She’d thought it was ironic. She’d thought that with Bluejam dead, his bounty collected, and his crew scattered to the wind, that they wouldn’t have to worry about the whole “Gray Terminal getting burned to the ground” incident that had originally resulted in Sabo losing his memories and being taken in by the Revolutionaries. That he could stay with them just a little longer, so he and Ace could both leave together at 17. It was stupid of her to forget though that even with Bluejam dead, the nobles from the Goa Kingdom that had hired the man to raze Gray Terminal in the first place were still out there and willing to pay to get the job done.

Stupid to forget that there were _always _men like Bluejam out there ready to attack innocents for a quick beri.

So the very next day, they’d found themselves again surrounded by pirates cackling about Gray Terminal’s imminent destruction. This time, there were more than even Luciana –Conquerer’s Haki and all—could fight off alone while still protecting the boys. And while they could take care of themselves for the most part (She’d taught them well, thank you.) even they were still vulnerable to sheer numbers.

And then Sabo, sweet Sabo, had fled. “I know who did it, guys,” he’d shouted over his shoulder, ignoring his three siblings crying out for him to come back. “And I’m gonna stop him!”

He hadn’t. Mere minutes later, the city around them started to burn.

She didn’t really have the words to describe what it felt like to sense an entire town’s worth of innocent people being burned alive all around her. It was too much for her mind to process, honestly. All she could feel in those moments was her own bone-deep terror for her brothers echoed a thousand times all around her by the tortured screams she wasn’t sure she was hearing with her ears, or in her head, as phantom flames licked up her flesh and seemingly melted it away, only to leave her whole again moments later for the process to restart.

Luciana had rushed Ace and Luffy to safety once she’d finally managed to defeat the mob of pirates with the help of Dadan’s timely arrival and Ace unlocking his own (stunningly powerful) Conquerer’s Haki. (She nearly hadn’t made the run, having been forced to deaden her own senses and navigate truly blind for the time being. She just couldn’t stand the screams anymore.) She’d then left them at the house in Dadan’s care while she and Dogura went back to look for Sabo, ignoring her brothers’ protests of wanting to go too and the way her own hands wouldn’t stop _shaking_. From amongst the ashes and rubble of the still-smoldering buildings, they’d seen Sabo setting sail on his little boat. (Luciana could almost hear his little voice exclaiming something about not being able to wait a single second longer to join the Revolution, so he could both avenge Gray Terminal and keep them all safe from the machinations of his family.)

They also saw his little boat blown to pieces.

Sabo was still alive. Luciana knew this both from the story, and because her senses were better than Dogura’s eyes. Still, watching it happen broke her heart. _She thought she’d stopped it. _But she’d grown arrogant and comfortable here, she realized. Nothing she’d done had been enough to stop Sabo from setting sail, having his boat blown apart by the Celestial Dragon’s ship, and losing his memory. She wasn't even in a position where she could try to save him herself, what with the ship guarding the harbor. At the very least though, she could trust that he’d end up where he wanted to go, even if he didn’t regain his memory for years yet. (And considering the event that caused him to remember in the first place, Luciana almost hoped he _never _did. It beat the alternative.)

“Is he dead?” Dogura asked hoarsely from beside her.

Luciana clenched her jaw so hard it was painful. “I don’t sense him anymore.” It wasn’t a lie –he’d already drifted beyond her range even as they stood there staring dumbfounded at the water—and she both felt and sounded nearly strangled with the effort of biting back her tears. They returned to the house in silence.

Was it fate? Maybe. Luciana was a strong believer in the fact that people made their own fates though. And it seemed that –for better or for worse—Sabo would now be making his.

To date, telling Ace and Luffy that their brother was dead was the hardest thing she’d done since offering her own life in exchange for Robin’s. “His boat was destroyed, and then I couldn’t sense him anymore,” she told them with a cracked voice. “I’m sorry.”

Luffy cried and cried. He was the sort of person that felt emotions deeply and fully, with his body as well as his mind. Positive or negative, his feelings tended to overwhelm him most of the time. Between this trait and his age, Luciana tended to baby him more than she did the others. She’d often comforted him in the past, and so he didn’t hesitate now to leap into her arms and wind his stretchy arms and legs around her multiple times as he wailed his grief into her ear.

“You’re lying. You’re _lying!_” Ace screamed at her and Dogura both before attacking the man. Still, despite his vehement denial and fierce blows, Ace too soon ended up leaning stunned against Luciana’s side, finally processing that Sabo was gone.

Luciana cried too. She _was _lying to them. If she told them that Sabo was still alive, they’d never stop searching for him. Perhaps it was selfish, but she didn’t want either of them to give up on their dreams for Sabo’s sake when she knew that he was alive and well and achieving his own dream in his own way, oblivious to the brothers and sister he’d left behind. Luciana wouldn’t know how to even _begin _to explain how she knew something like that, and so she said nothing. She tried to tell herself that it was for the best, and hated herself for not believing it. She hated herself even more for not being able to prevent the incident in the first place, but the moment she’d sensed that it was Sabo out there on that little boat… she’d known that her little brother’s fate was out of her hands. That it was up to him and him alone now, to dictate his future. (Which ironically, is all he ever really wanted in the first place.)

Yet even knowing this, losing her little brother almost felt like losing Robin all over again. (It ached worse than the angry red burns she could still feel for a week after the fires had all gone out, cracking on her skin even though the injuries weren’t actually there.) Luciana _hated _that when the people she’d come to love inevitably left, they also left holes in her heart in the shape of them that she had no hope of ever filling on her own. It was agony, and it wasn’t fair, and she _hated _that the world didn’t give a shit about hers or Ace’s or Luffy’s pain and just kept on spinning.

Luciana left both of her remaining brothers on the morning of her eighteenth birthday, nearly ten months after they lost Sabo.

(Ten months later, and even though they rarely mentioned his name, they could still hear Sabo’s ghost in every argument between Ace and Luffy that Luciana couldn’t disperse with just a handful of well-placed words like _he _could. They saw him in every cloud or bush that even vaguely resembled his stupid top hat, and felt him in every sparring session that now always left one person sitting out during a double match, because there was no one left to fight anymore. Sometimes, on clear and quiet nights, Luciana thought she could still smell the acrid stench of burning buildings and burning people.)

Though the sun was only just peeking over the horizon at the docks of Foosha Village, Luciana could already tell that it would be a clear day. Good for sailing. (And hadn’t _that _been a difficult skill to learn! It felt like she’d paid Rosha the fisherman mostly just to laugh at her amateur fumblings.) It had been seven years since she’d first stepped onto this very pier. She hadn’t imagined then that she’d be where she was now. Seven years ago, she’d been freshly blinded, lonely, and completely miserable. Possessed with a single-minded focus and resolve, and an ever-burning resentment towards Garp and the world in general. Luciana wasn’t an angry eleven-year-old anymore though. Seven years later, she was now officially an angry _adult_. And she had so many more things to be angry about now… but she’d learned practicality too, and patience. Learned how to master her own body and spirit, and to give herself purpose greater than that younger version of her could have ever anticipated.

She was a sister now, after all.

And a bounty hunter while she was at it too. (After collecting on the bodies of Porchemy and Bluejam, she’d gone on a bit of a rampage through the island’s more populated areas, looking to pick a fight. Perhaps it hadn’t been the most healthy coping mechanism for her to use to deal with her complicated feelings about losing Sabo, and witnessing the deaths of everyone who’d burned alive in Gray Terminal when she thought she’d made it safe, but it had certainly helped her to collect a tidy chunk of change.) The marines at the bounty office had even given her a moniker when she’d refused to put a name on her collection paperwork. (Because only a _stupid _bounty hunter allowed their name to become infamous.)

They called her the Black Sight. Presumably for her seeming blindness.

Pretentious, but not altogether awful. This moniker was one of the few things she carried with her on the small boat she’d purchased with some of her savings that she intended to leave on today.

Luffy and Ace had woken up uncharacteristically early to come see her off, and were standing a few steps behind her, watching as she finished the last few preparations to the boat. Ace stood stoically. He was thirteen now, his previously childishly round freckled face only just starting to slim out and his voice starting to crack. He was a man now, he kept insisting to her. Luciana might have believed that he was as unaffected by her leaving as he appeared if not for his suspiciously bright eyes, and for how hard his throat seemed to be working.

Luffy on the other hand, was literally a puddle of rubbery limbs at Ace’s feet and was crying so hard that Luciana worried he’d make himself sick with the force of it.

Heart heavy, she dropped her pack into the bottom of the boat and turned to approach them. Observation Haki was a tricky thing, and wasn’t typically used the way she used it. Every form of Haki was, at its core, a manipulation of the user’s spirit. Observation was often thought of as an enhancement to existing senses, but Luciana usually thought of hers as a sort of spiritual sonar where she’d stretch her own energy out over a range and ‘touch’ everything in it. Not only did this help her navigate terrain and inanimate objects to a certain extent like actual sonar might (which she hadn’t been able to do before being forced to rely on it entirely, but necessity was the mother of invention) but when there were living things within her range, she was able to pick out much more specific details. Not appearance-wise like her eyes might have, but spiritually speaking. Intentions and strong emotions, usually. In a way, the touching of spirit against spirit was very intimate. She often knew what people were going to do before _they _did.

While this could be useful at times, in cases like this one… it hurt, to feel the agony that her leaving was causing her brothers. (It didn’t feel like the townsfolk burning alive had, but there seemed to be an infinite number of ways to experience pain.) “Luffy-kun, Ace-kun…” she sighed as she stopped within arm’s reach of them.

“Don’t,” Ace said firmly, looking up at her (But not nearly so far as he’d used to, he was growing so fast!) with his jaw set. “I know you have to go. I… I know you never wanted to be here, Ana.”

Luciana winced. She’d never explicitly said so to Ace, but she wasn’t surprised he knew. She’d never been able to hide how thoroughly miserable she’d been back in those early days, but she’d hoped that Ace would’ve been young enough that he wouldn’t pick up on it or remember. “I’d stay if you asked me to,” she told him instead of trying to deny it. And it surprised her how much she actually meant it.

“I—I know,” Ace said gruffly, scrubbing the back of his hand over his eyes. “That’s why I can’t do it.”

“I love you,” Luciana blurted, wincing as Luffy’s tears only increased in volume at the declaration. Ace had gone straight for her feelings on that one, hadn’t he? She couldn’t help herself. “I don’t say it enough, but I do. I love both of you, and I’m proud of you. I wish I didn’t have to go.”

Ace nodded. “But you do.”

“Yes,” Luciana agreed sadly. “I do.” She really did. She’d learned all that this island had to teach her. If she hoped to survive out on the Grand Line one day, she’d need to be _much _stronger than this. She couldn’t do that here. She’d run out of bounties to collect, and didn’t fancy living as an adult with Garp breathing down her neck. “But I mean it when I say I’ll come back and visit. You probably won’t even have time to miss me.”

Ace scoffed. Luciana ignored him. Instead, she put a hesitant hand up against her blindfold, feeling uncharacteristically nervous. “Ace, Luffy…” she said, hesitant. Her unusual tone served to distract Luffy at least, and he stopped crying so loudly, so that he could look at her properly with his still-streaming eyes. “Before I go, could I… could I look at you?”

Because for all that feeling out someone’s spirit with her own was very intimate, Luciana had not once removed her blindfold around the boys for long enough to have actually _looked _at them. (She deeply regretted not seeing Sabo’s face at least once before he disappeared to this day. She’d felt their faces with her hands of course, and with her spirit, but…) She didn’t _need _to see, really. She just… missed it, sometimes. The simple beauty of shapes and colors and light and patterns. The beauty to be found in a loved one’s face beyond her senses of touch. The scars on her own face were horrific and ugly though –she’d stopped to look at herself in Dadan’s mirror only once—and Luciana knew that with how close she’d have to be to the boys in order to actually _see _them, they’d get a full view of her old injuries. She hadn’t wanted them to see her like that. So before today, she hadn’t asked.

Both boys’ jaws dropped. “You can _see_?” they screeched in unison.

Luciana laughed lightly. “A little,” she admitted. “I only have one eye, and it doesn’t work very well. I don’t really need it now, but sometimes…” she trailed of wistfully. “…sometimes I miss it.” She paused, then added a warning. “My scars are ugly. You don’t have to say yes if you don’t want to.”

Both boys shook their heads vehemently. “We want to,” Luffy insisted, already reaching out and tugging at her blindfold.

Luciana let him, and blinked furiously as the morning sunlight stabbed at her remaining eye. (Sometimes, she thought it was more frustrating to be able to see only a little and poorly than it would have been if she was blind entirely. She’d always scold herself shortly thereafter for being ungrateful.) She soon recovered though, and focused on Ace and Luffy as best she could. They’d gasped when they’d first seen her, but to their credit were now merely gazing at her with a mixture of horror and wonder as she drank in her first view of their faces.

“Your eye is brown!” Luffy exclaimed in seeming delight.

Luciana smiled warmly. Oh, Luffy. “And yours are black.” She’d almost forgotten. He and Ace actually looked quite alike standing side by side like this. Like blood brothers.

She felt… she didn’t know how she felt, seeing them –really _seeing _them, as best she could—for the first time. Good, mostly.

“What happened?” Ace asked her, voice nearly a whisper. He reached out with tentative fingers to touch one of the raised scars, and she leaned into his touch for a moment before pulling back and tying her blindfold in place once again. Trying and failing to focus her vision was giving her a headache.

She’d never told any of them about her life before she’d been brought here. Only that when she eventually left them, that there was someone she wanted to go find. Luciana imagined that Ace had just assumed she’d been born blind, since she never gave any indication otherwise. She had no intention of telling him the real story though. At least not at the moment. No matter her feelings towards her “grandfather”, both Ace and Luffy deserved to base their relationship with him on their own experiences, not hers.

“It was a long time ago,” she said simply, “and it’s not important now.” She backed up a step, and opened her arms.

Luffy basically body-tackled her with his hug, and though Ace was more restrained about it he soon found herself in her arms too. “I’ll miss you,” she sniffled into Luffy’s hair. “And I’ll be back soon.”

“We’ll miss you too.”

“We love you, Ana-chan.”


	6. The Swordsman and the Navigator

While her little brother Luffy battled to free the famous pirate hunter Roronoa Zoro from his executioners’ bullets, Luciana was sleeping in a barrel.

This was less an expression of her absolute faith in Luffy’s abilities, and more of an indication of her irregular sleep schedule. Though to be fair, she was hardly concerned about the Marines at this particular base’s ability to hurt him.

Captain Morgan and his weak trashbag of a son were a complete joke.

Rather, she was more exhausted than anything. Instead of sleeping the night before, she’d spent the time swimming alongside the boat as it skipped along the waves, a rope tied loosely around her waist as a safety measure. There wasn’t room or equipment for proper strength training on board the little boat that had been her companion for the past seven years, especially since she’d brought her littlest brother (and Koby, after a run-in with Captain Alvira) on board. Instead, she swam. Fast enough to keep up with the boat, for hours and hours. It was a full-body workout, and often left Luciana in a pathetic dripping heap on the deck of the boat for hours afterwards, feeling weak and boneless and whining playfully about her burning muscles to a laughing Luffy.

It helped a lot with building endurance and improving her general swimming abilities, and to be honest, there wasn’t much else for someone with Luciana’s skillset to _do _on a boat this small besides meditation. Pushing her strength with her feet firmly planted on the deck would inevitably result in her damaging the boat, and unlike Luffy, Luciana liked to think that she at least had _some _situational awareness when it came to taking good care of her belongings. Still, the end result of this was that she was tired. _Really _tired. And since Luffy was Luffy and he never stopped, she didn’t have enough energy to really take an interest in his usual antics today and had instead curled up for a nap as soon as she’d waved him and Koby off.

The barrel on the other hand, was more of an intentional choice. Luciana felt most comfortable when she was out of plain sight, and most people wouldn’t assume to look for strange women sleeping in barrels. Plus, with the breeze flowing over the top of it, it felt good on a warm summer day like this one since it cooled the space inside considerably with each gust. In her mind, the barrel was the best napping spot available on the boat. It was nice.

And so she slept, and didn’t wake until Luffy crashed back on board with his typical unnecessary roughness, shouting “ANA! I’M BACK!”

Luciana gave him a noncommittal hum of acknowledgement, too comfortable to move. “That’s nice, Luffy-kun,” she told him sincerely. Despite having interrupted her nap, she would always be happy to see her stupid ball of sunshine brother. Though she supposed she should call him Captain, now.

He’d brought a second person on board. Roronoa Zoro presumably, since Luffy had mentioned wanting to recruit the famous pirate hunter to their crew. Luciana could sense him clearly despite still being confined to her barrel. (Physical barriers didn’t mean much to her, generally.) He was stronger than most on the East Blue, she could tell right away. More than anything though, he nearly _reeked _of untapped potential. He was a refreshing sort of person to be around by this virtue alone, she knew instantly.

“This is Zoro,” Luffy continued, confirming Luciana’s suspicions. “He’s our new crewmate! Come say hello.” The demand was accompanied by a hand stretching down into her napping place and feeling around for a good grip to no doubt yank her out bodily. Disgruntled, Luciana bit down on a finger that had come too close to her face, and didn’t let go even as Luffy yelped and hastily withdrew his hand. “No biting, Captain’s orders!”

Luciana released his finger from between her teeth and smirked as it snapped back into place like a rubber band. That same smirk vanished however, when Luffy shattered the barrel around her with a sharp kick and she tumbled out onto the deck with a solid thud. Snarling with irritation –that was her _favorite napping spot, dammit!—_she grabbed her quarterstaff from where it’d been leaning up against the railing and knocked him to the deck by his throat with a fanciful twirl. “_What was that for, Luffy?” _she growled, standing above him and jabbing him rather unkindly in the chest with the blunt end of the quarterstaff. (Sue her, she was petty.)

“You were being rude, and we have to go,” Luffy complained, both looking and sounding woozy as he took the full brunt of the sea prism embedded in her weapon. “Don’t hit me!”

Luciana sighed heavily, but relented and hung the quarterstaff out of the way across her back with the length of rope she’d tied to it to use as a strap. (She didn’t help him up though. She was still upset about the barrel.) “Hello Zoro-san, I am Century Luciana. Welcome to the crew,” she said dutifully, angling her face towards him as she tended to do when addressing people she’d just met. Though it didn’t affect her ability to focus on a conversation one way or another, most people found it disconcerting if she didn’t ‘look’ at them when she spoke to them, and she didn’t want to make him too uncomfortable right off the bat. Never let it be said that she was a poor nakama.

“You’re the Captain’s sister then?” Zoro clarified. “The first mate?” He hadn’t moved since boarding the boat, but was tense as he watched her cautiously. His hands were flexing at his sides as if he wished he could make a grab for the swords at his side, though his heartbeat remained steady and even. He clearly didn’t know what to think of her.

Luciana didn’t blame him. First impressions involving sleeping in barrels and sudden violence against their captain aside, she’d come a long way from the little bald girl swaddled in monk’s robes she’d once been. She’d left _those _vestiges of her life behind when she’d left Rondia. She was a grown woman of twenty five now, and had until joining Luffy’s crew on his seventeenth birthday been a fairly well-known independent bounty hunter in the East Blue. She could safely say without ego that she was a very dangerous person, and looked the part.

Though she couldn’t exactly be described as tall (She was _precisely _average height, thank you.) she was built broadly, and heavily muscled for her size. Her most obvious feature was perhaps her ever-present grey blindfold, though it was half-hidden beneath her bangs. (As it turned out, once she’d stopped being regularly shaved clean, Luciana had a _lot _of hair. It wasn’t as curly nor as dark as Usopp’s would be, but it came close. If she didn’t prefer to contain it in a pair of thick braids most of the time, it would have been completely unmanageable.) She wore sturdy knee-high leather boots with an escrima stick each strapped to their outsides, and loose-fitting black trousers held up with a grey cloth belt that she’d tied neatly into a bow at the small of her back, beneath which was enough room for her to conceal a single small pouch. (_That _was where she hid her collection of poisons.) Most of the time, she just wore a simple black tank top that laced up the front to complete her outfit, though she did own some longer sleeved shirts to wear beneath it during spells of colder weather. Since it was summer now though, both of her arms were left bare, revealing a tattoo of purple flowers encircling her left forearm.

Monkshood. A deadly poison.

“Yes,” she answered Zoro shortly as she frowned and picked up one of the shattered pieces of her barrel. Unfortunately, she doubted she could fix it, so she tossed it overboard with a dissatisfied grunt. She could feel her new nakama’s stare on her, but felt no desire to address it. He’d get used to her and her brother eventually. “Where to next, Captain?”

Luffy –recovered by now—grinned widely at her. “That way!”

Luciana just took note of the general direction he was pointing and moved to set sail, stepping neatly around Zoro’s frame. She still wasn’t very good at navigation for obvious reasons, even after all the years she spent sailing alone and despite her mentor’s best efforts; but between the three of them, she somehow still felt like she was the best option.

Which brought her to the day they met Nami, three days later.

Predictably, Luffy had gotten into trouble and gotten himself kidnapped by a bird. Luciana and Zoro had followed from the boat. (The incident came as almost a relief, honestly. The ocean was cold and dead for the most part, aside from the various sea creatures that would occasionally pass beneath them. Essentially a void to her senses. Pinky was a living thing, and infinitely easier to use as a heading than traditional methods.)

“Where do you think Luffy’s gotten to?” Zoro asked her as they dragged the boat onto the beach of Orange Town. He’d warmed to her considerably over the last few days. For her part, Luciana liked Zoro more than she’d thought she would as well. They were a lot alike. He’d taken to swimming with her (Which she was rather smug about, considering that for the moment she was still better at it than he was. Though with his determined and competitive nature, she doubted that would last long.) and instead of asking her questions about her blindfold, had asked questions about her weapons and fighting style in general. Otherwise, he seemed perfectly content to maintain a companionable silence.

So Luciana liked Zoro. She liked his priorities.

But to answer his question, she just shrugged noncommittally. “No idea,” she admitted, slinging her quarterstaff over her back. “Let’s go find him.”

As it turned out, even Zoro could follow the sounds of pirate revelry with moderate accuracy. Luciana had allowed him to take the lead in the search for their wayward captain, but it seemed that there really wasn’t much of a search needed. Buggy the Clown was many things, Luciana observed. Subtle wasn’t one of them. When she and Zoro approached the scene, Buggy and his crew were full out celebrating, and Buggy –the bastard—was insisting that Nami shoot a canon at a caged Luffy.

Luciana knew it wouldn’t kill him. Buggy didn’t know that though, and _that’s _what pissed her off.

Neither she nor her companion had hesitated to leap right into the action, swinging weapons first and asking questions later. She and Zoro fought rather well together, she thought. He wasn’t quite at her level yet, but she knew that would soon change. She was six years older than he was, after all. She’d had far longer to learn and train in her chosen arts, and the boy had an incredible work ethic that she genuinely admired. She’d no doubt he’d eventually surpass her, and she thought he was keeping up with her rather well in this fight. His controlled aggression balanced her sure and conservative movements nicely.

Not that it was much of a fight, in her opinion. So far as she could tell, Buggy’s devil fruit was his only appreciable talent; and while it protected him from sharp weapons, her quarterstaff was both a blunt weapon _and _embedded with sea prism. It was really quite pathetic how easily they took him and his crew down, even by Luciana’s standards. It seemed like only minutes after they’d arrived at the ‘party’ that she and Zoro found themselves the only ones standing tall amongst the still forms of Buggy and his crew. Thankfully, neither of them were injured in this version of events. Luffy was laughing and waving cheerily at them from inside his cage, while Nami stared at them with a mixture of awe and horror from where she’d ducked behind the canon to avoid their rampage.

Luciana wasn’t exactly sure how to react to Nami. She reminded her too much of Robin for comfort, with her traumatic history and willingness to do whatever it takes to survive. She settled for ignoring her for now. It’s not as if that was out of character for her.

“Zoro-san,” she said quietly as she stepped over to Luffy’s cage and explored the lock with keen fingertips. “Do you recognize any of their faces? Do any of them besides the clown man have bounties?” She considered forcing Luffy to break out of the cage on his own, but decided to shatter the iron lock with a swift blow from her quarterstaff instead.

“Yes,” he responded after a moment of surveying the area. “These three.” He pointed. Luciana just nodded, appreciative that he didn’t doubt her ability to know which ones he meant.

Instead of trying to interfere with Luffy’s fresh attempts to recruit Nami to the crew, Luciana instead focused on the men with bounties. Buggy and two of the underlings were merely unconscious. The third was dead, but after all this time, dead bodies didn’t really bother her anymore. She hogtied the ones that were still alive and loaded all four of them onto a pair of makeshift sledges she constructed out of two broken boards and some rope, then clicked her tongue thoughtfully.

Thankfully, Zoro seemed to be on the same wavelength as her and grabbed the rope on one of the sledges. “I’ll go with you,” he said.

Luciana nodded, and picked up the rope to the remaining sledge. “Oi, Luffy!” she called out. “The boat’s pulled up at the south shore. We’ll meet you there, but we’ve got some money to collect first.”

“Okay,” he agreed easily. “Buy some more meat while you’re out!”

Luciana didn’t dignify that with an answer. She and Zoro proceeded to drag the four men through the center of Orange Town in silence, choosing to ignore the occasional horrified bystander. “Let me do the talking,” she told the swordsman shortly when they arrived at the bounty office. “We’re not sure if you’re still wanted.”

Zoro dipped his head in acquiescence and held the door open for her as she dragged her set of bounties inside, and she favored him with a smile for the courtesy. The Marine manning the desk was so green that even _Luciana _could see the color. He’d gone all shaky when they walked in and he saw who it was they’d brought with them, and she rolled her remaining eye even if no one else in the room could see it as his heart began to race. Honestly.

Though she didn’t know what else she expected from a Marine stationed in a town that collectively ran away from _Buggy_.

“We’ll need four collection forms,” she said impatiently when it appeared that the boy was too busy staring to actually do his job. “_Now._”

“R—right,” he stuttered, ducking to fumble through his desk drawer and withdrew the relevant papers, which he then held out to her with unsteady hands. “You’ll need to fill out yours and their information here, here, and here.”

Rolling her eye once again, Luciana tilted her head and gestured at her blindfold, pursing her lips and making an impatient noise as if the kid was stupid. Which in all fairness, he might have been, so far as she could tell.

She absolutely heard Zoro let out a quiet snort of amusement as the Marine squeaked in embarrassment and began filling out the forms himself, using the local bounties posted on the nearby wall for reference. Thankfully, he didn’t ask for her input again until he needed the name of the person being paid the bounty. He actually choked when Luciana told him that she was Black Sight, and she didn’t even try to stop herself from smirking as he finished up the paperwork and nearly shoved them back out the door, payment in hand.

Buggy and his three crewmen were worth a neat 18,000,000 beri altogether. Nami would be pleased, at least.

“You’re the Black Sight?” Zoro asked her curiously as they walked back to where they left she ship side by side. (He’d tried twice to take the lead and nearly taken twice as many wrong turns. He’d given up rather quickly.)

“I am,” Luciana admitted, not surprised he was familiar with the moniker. She’d heard of _him _after all, and he was just a rookie. “It’s not a name I gave myself, but the Marines aren’t really a creative bunch.”

Zoro grunted in agreement, and that was that. (This was why she liked him.)

When they returned to the boat after purchasing some more provisions for their journey, Luffy and Nami were waiting for them on the beach.

“Ana, Zoro!” ha called out to them loudly, and gestured to the redhead at his side. “Meet Nami, she’s our Navigator!”

“I’m not a pirate,” Nami apparently felt the need to clarify as Luciana and Zoro both unloaded their haul onto the deck of the boat after nodding politely to her. “This is just a temporary partnership.”

Luciana actually laughed at that, but didn’t argue. “Okay,” she agreed. “Glad to have you anyways. I’m not the best navigator in the East Blue, that’s for sure.”

“_You _were the one navigating?” Nami spluttered, seemingly too horrified to properly think about her words before responding. Though to her credit, she blushed in mortification almost immediately. “I mean, not that I’m not sure you’re capable. It’s just—”

“—that I can’t actually read a compass or a map, or see clouds, stars, or approaching landmasses on the far horizon,” Luciana finished for her with no small amount of amusement, even as Luffy sprang onto the boat behind her with a snicker. Zoro followed his captain silently, though Luciana could tell that he allowed himself to smirk once his back was turned to Nami. “I’m well aware. No need to be shy about it.”

“I… well… yes,” Nami finished lamely, seemingly caught wrong-footed by the entire conversation.

Luciana hummed. “Then I guess it’s a good thing we have you now, Nami-san,” she concluded, and gestured for Nami to board the boat. “If everyone’s ready now, I’ll push us out.”

“Alone?”

“I’ll manage,” she laughed.


	7. Grandma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yet another chapter. (I'm feeling productive.) Here's more on who Luciana's teacher was. The short sequences you see here will really influence her fighting style in the future, as well as her general worldview.

With a full seven years spanning in between Luciana’s eighteenth birthday and Luffy’s seventeenth, she had set out on her first voyage away from Foosha Village with a decision to make.

Seven years was a long time, even if she planned to return for visits every few months or so. (She’d miss the boys too much to stay away for too long.)

Luciana had thought long and hard about what she wanted to do. Her first instinct of course, had been to jump straight into trying to find Robin; but she knew that it wasn’t feasible. She had no idea where to even _start _looking for her at this point, though she knew that eventually she’d end up with Crocodile on the Grand Line. Which brought her to her second problem. Actually _surviving _the Grand Line.

After what had happened on Rondia, Luciana’s greatest fear was not being strong enough to keep her loved ones safe. Not _every _Navy Admiral was as strange as Garp was, and even with him she sincerely doubted that trading her life for someone else’s would work a second time. She was still a little puzzled about how well it had worked the _first _time, to be honest. But she knew very well that even as she was now –having trained as best she could during her time with her little brothers—she wasn’t even _close _to where she needed to be. At this point, she doubted she’d make it on the Grand Line for a week! And that… was unacceptable.

So even if it grated, Robin would have to wait. She’d been a monk for eleven years. If nothing else, Luciana had at least learned patience from them.

But what to do? There was just so _much _in this world that she could learn. So many paths to power and incredible people to learn from. Should she focus on physical training, and try to find someone to teach her some sort of martial art, or to work with a weapon? Should she focus more on enhancing her existing talents with the three forms of Haki? Or should she take a different path?

She wasn’t sure what the right answer was. What would help Robin the most. What would suit her best.

In the end, it was her complete and utter incompetence in navigation that decided her course for her. She’d intended to sail south towards Woodcreek Row, which was a larger port, in hopes of coming across a good option there. As it turned out however, sailing with no navigation methods outside of a compass and sea chart –neither of which she could actually see very well, if at all—was very difficult. And probably very stupid, in hindsight. (No one had ever told Luciana that sailing with _direction _was so hard!) Though thankfully, it seemed that some of Luffy’s insane luck rubbed off on her somewhat, and instead of drifting off course and starving to death on the open ocean, she drifted off course and ran ashore on a little island chain known locally as the Listers.

Not many people lived there. One person who did however, was an older woman who went by the name Carimo Izumi. She and Luciana had their first encounter while Luciana was sprawled out on the beach near Izumi’s house, where she’d pulled up her boat and was attempting to read her map without much luck. It was a cloudy day, and no matter how close to her face she held the sea chart, she couldn’t quite make out where she was. (Though to be fair, even if she _could _see properly, maps had never exactly been her strongest subject.) She clearly hadn’t thought this whole solo journey though, she thought wryly.

“What are you doing, fool child?” the old woman barked from behind her.

Luciana nearly jumped out of her skin. Normally, she was nearly impossible to surprise. At this point, she could sense people coming literally a mile away with her Observation Haki, and she had so much endurance with it that she rarely stopped using it except to sleep. Though it _was _distracting to try and use her spiritual senses and her physical eye at the same time, which is why she’d been caught so off-guard now. She’d been unable to maintain focus with both.

“Uh…” she said intelligently as she momentarily struggled to once again take stock of her surroundings. “I’m trying to… navigate…”

The old woman –who Luciana was surprised to find was nearly as much a shock to her senses as Garp was—pinned her with a skeptical look. “With scars like that, baka?”

Wincing, Luciana touched where her right eye used to be and… yeah. Valid point. She slumped a little, and tied her blindfold back on. Some protector shewas. She was so _useless. _How could she take care of anyone else if she couldn’t even sail properly? She’d come to terms with her blindness long ago. With the use of Haki, it was far less of an issue than it might have been for someone else in the same situation. But the ocean, it seemed, was a whole different animal. It wasn’t like being on dry land, where she could generally tell where everything was in relation to each other and the ground. The sea just… stretched on and _on _in every direction, flat and lifeless, until she couldn’t sense it anymore; and she essentially had no ability to see anything at all beyond the boat. She had no way to orient herself at all really, except for with the use of equipment that she couldn’t even read properly like this.

Not even two days after leaving, and she’d already failed.

“Yes,” Luciana whispered, ashamed but unwilling to cry in front of this stranger. “Even then… I am trying.”

A long silence fell over them. Then, “Get up, and follow me. You look half-starved,” the woman said.

Luciana wasn’t really hungry, but she didn’t want to argue with this woman who seemed so old and frail, yet was bursting with enough hidden strength to put to shame twenty younger men in their primes. And she was tired, and she was lonely, and she missed all three of her brothers terribly enough already that at this point, she’d happily enjoy the company of a stranger if it meant someone to ground her sight. (Normally, she could sense so far away that even if she wasn’t with someone, she never really felt _alone _because she could always feel another person _somewhere, _if not several. But the only heartbeat she could feel on her boat was her own. The isolation of the open ocean had been… unexpectedly suffocating, when at times her senses could feel more like a curse than a gift.) So she followed the old lady without even bothering to bring her quarterstaff along with her.

Thankfully, it seemed she wasn’t particularly nefarious, and simply brought Luciana into her small home and prepared tea and sandwiches for them while Luciana knelt at her table.

“Thank you,” she murmured as she dug in, surprised to find after her first bite that she _was _hungry after all.

The old lady knelt across from her at the table and sipped her tea primly. “You’re welcome, fool child,” she said. “With your eyes like that, you’re lucky you weren’t lost at sea.”

“Perhaps,” Luciana admitted, but her resolve didn’t waver. “I’ll just have to learn more before I try again.”

The woman gave an inelegant snort, but didn’t otherwise comment. “What’s your name?” she asked instead.

“Century Luciana. And yours?”

“Carimo Izumi.”

Luciana dipped her head respectfully. “Thank you, Carimo-sama, for your hospitality.”

“Oh, the baka has manners!” Izumi laughed, shaking her head. “Too bad those manners can’t help you sail. What are you doing out here, alone like this?”

She fought the urge to scowl at the woman’s attitude. She knew she deserved the lecture for her foolishness. “I had to leave home before my grandfather chose my life for me,” Luciana confessed with complete honesty. She saw no harm in it, and it felt good to talk about it with someone, finally. “I want more freedom than he would ever want to give me, and I refuse to stand for the same cause that he does.”

Izumi raised her eyebrows. “A controlling man then, your grandfather?”

Luciana grimaced. That was one way of putting it. “Yes,” she agreed quietly. “He is.” Garp had shown her a great deal of kindness, in his own way. He meant well. She knew that. That didn’t excuse him though, and it _especially _didn’t excuse the organization that he’d dedicated his life to serving. “He’s not around much, but when he is…” She hesitated, and fought the urge to raise a hand to her face by tightening her grip on the teacup. “I can fight, but he’s still… much stronger than I am. I’d rather take my chances with the sea than lose to him again.”

“I see…” Izumi said, almost to herself as she hummed thoughtfully and turned to stare out the window. Luciana took the opportunity to take another bite of her sandwich, and nearly choked on it when the old lady suddenly turned back to her and asked, “What is it you fight for?”

“Uh, sorry?” Luciana coughed. “I don’t understand.”

“You have fire, fool child. I can sense it,” Izumi scolded her, clicking her tongue disapprovingly. “Drive. But what for, I wonder?”

“I…” But that was as far as Luciana got in the sentence, because she… didn’t really know how to answer that question. Once, her answer would have been Robin. But that wasn’t true anymore, because she had more people to watch over now than just her wayward friend, even if she never stopped missing her for a moment. Her little brothers, namely, though she’d be remiss to say she didn’t care about Rondia. (Luciana had no plans to return there in the near future, despite how dear she held her home island and its inhabitants to her heart. There’d be too many questions –and worst of all, she was afraid that if she went home, she’d never want to leave again.) There were also her future crewmates to consider. The ones they’d collect here in the East Blue along with Chopper were all so _young. _They’d need her. She hadn’t even met them, and yet she still knew she’d do her utmost to protect every single person who called themselves her nakama.

“I want to be strong enough to protect the people I love,” she decided on, satisfied that even if this didn’t capture the entirety of her ambition, it was enough to get the idea. She even surprised herself with her own vehemence in her tone. “I never want to lose someone because I was too weak to protect them, or myself, _ever _again. Never.”

“And you thought that you could achieve this by running away with no clear destination in mind?” Izumi questioned her, not even hesitating for a moment over the response, or even reacting to it beyond a small nod. As if this was what she’d expected.

And okay, yeah. When she put it like _that, _it sounded stupid. Her first reaction was to get defensive over her own choices but… Luciana didn’t exactly have anything to prove here. She wilted. “I… I just… didn’t know what else to do. Or where to go. At least this was better than doing _nothing,” _she finished with a growl, frustrated.

“I didn’t say it wasn’t,” Izumi pointed out calmly, and Luciana flushed with the implied rebuke, feeling for the first time in a long time like she really was just an unruly child. (Though to be fair, compared to Carimo Izumi, she probably was.) Izumi didn’t appear to hold her sharp words against her however, and just gave her a serene smile as she took another sip of tea. “You claim you can fight,” she said. “Are you any good?”

“Depends on who you ask,” Luciana responded right away, relieved at the change of subject. “Good enough to clear out my island of small-time bounties, but not nearly good enough for where I need to go.”

Izumi chuckled. “That’s always the way of things,” she assured her. “But if you’re willing to stay, I’d be willing to help.”

“R—Really?” Luciana sputtered, nearly dropping her tea. Perhaps someone else may have laughed away such an offer from the tiny old woman, but Luciana didn’t dare. Even if Izumi hadn’t seemed so powerful in her mind’s eye, she knew enough not to discount the value of wisdom. When Izumi just nodded regally at her in confirmation, Luciana didn’t hesitate to scoot away from the table and press her forehead to the ground, bowing to the woman. “Thank you, shishou, for your kind offer. I gladly accept.”

Izumi rolled her eyes and smacked her rather hard on the top of her head with her tea spoon. “Sit up, baka, and stop with that nonsense,” she commanded roughly. “You’re making a fool of yourself. From this moment onwards, you’ll never bow to anyone ever again.”

Scowling and rubbing the sore spot on the top of her head, Luciana obeyed.

Izumi grunted in seeming satisfaction. “Good,” she praised. “From now on, you’ll address me as Grandma. Finish your sandwich and step outside. I want to see what you can do.”

Grandma Izumi, as it turned out, was a badass.

Not that Luciana was at all surprised. Still, it was impressive to witness, even though she was the one on the other side of the beating. (She could honestly say she was used to getting her ass kicked by now.) Though she wasn’t an expert, so far as Luciana could tell, Grandma Izumi practiced a magical fantasy version of tai chi. She seemed to follow the basic principles of meeting force with softness at least, and was scarily good at taking Luciana’s hard and sure movements and completely turning them against her.

“There will _always _be someone or something who is stronger than you,” she’d advised her several weeks into their lessons, when Luciana had despaired aloud of ever reaching Grandma Izumi’s level after a particularly brutal defeat. “You young people, always in such a rush to take on the world! More important than knowing when to act, is knowing when to keep _still._”

There was value in that lesson. Luciana would have even admitted that before becoming Grandma Izumi’s student: though she had to say, watching the old lady deflect a blow from her quarterstaff that had literally been able to shatter stone with a mere flick of her wrist really went a long way towards convincing her of its absolute truth. She suspected that Grandma Izumi probably could have stopped the strike in its tracks with one hand if she’d felt like it. She never moved more than she had to though and preferred to redirect things instead of meeting force with force, which Luciana soon discovered resulted in her absolutely nightmarish levels of endurance. Luciana could have pounded away at her at full strength with her quarterstaff or escrima sticks all day if she’d wanted to, but Grandma Izumi would always win such a fight, merely by letting her opponent exhaust herself while she conserved her strength.

A reed bends, she mused, and does not break.

This wasn’t to say that Grandma Izumi couldn’t move quickly if she wanted to. At first, Luciana had assumed herself to be the fastest between the two of them. The fighting style she’d been taught by the monks of Rondia had focused on swiftness above all things, and had encouraged dealing many quick, decisive blows to put an opponent down quickly. There wasn’t anything wrong with this strategy per say, as it was often quite effective. During her early experiences with Grandma Izumi though, she discovered the value of versatility. The old lady could switch effortlessly from seemingly near motionless defense to swift and brutal offense, depending on her mood. She seemed to take great delight in breaking Luciana’s habit of defaulting to one fighting style over the other.

(Luciana had nearly had a heart attack when one day, Grandma Izumi suddenly used ‘Shave’ from the Six Powers, and nearly blinked out of even Luciana’s sight with the speed she achieved. “I thought only high ranking Marines knew how to do that!” she’d blurted after spitting out the mouthful of sand she’d taken in after being pounded face-first into the beach. Her teacher had only laughed, and told her that even though she herself was an ex-Marine, she certainly hadn’t learned the skill from _them._)

Grandma Izumi was also particularly fond of forcibly shattering Luciana’s Armament Haki with her own –a particularly painful experience. Though this, at least, she’d understood the purpose of from the start. A spirit can’t grow stronger in the absence of adversity.

It wasn’t all fighting. If it had been, Luciana probably would have died from her injuries in the first _week_. Allowing yourself time to heal, she’d been told firmly, was the foundation of a healthy body and soul. She fervently believed it. In her time spent outside of spars, Luciana participated in a variety of activities. Chief among them was meditation and drills, though she did spend a significant amount of time helping Grandma Izumi with household chores and listening to her lecture about ocean currents, wind speeds, and weather patterns. (Because apparently, there was much more that went into to successfully steering a ship than just pointing it in a cardinal direction and hoping for the best, which… oops?)

She’d also, after having spent six months in Grandma Izumi’s care, begun taking trips back to visit her brothers. It had taken that long for the old lady to be satisfied that Luciana probably wouldn’t accidentally kill herself by ending up somewhere she shouldn’t if she made the trip to Foosha Village and back by herself. Luciana –thoroughly cowed by her mentor and more than a little horrified at her own past ignorance and incredible luck now that she was more aware of the dangers of the open ocean than she had been—hadn’t protested the delay. In fact, she’d been so relieved to have finally done it right the first time she made the (intentional) successful trip back to the other island, that she’d actually knelt down and kissed the ground once she’d disembarked! (Which _wasn’t _bowing, Grandma. It was just gratitude.)

Ace and Luffy had been overjoyed to see her, and she them. She and Luffy both cried and squished Ace between them in a hug while he’d squirmed and kicked and called them both crybabies. (He hadn’t fought them _that _hard though.) After that, she’d begun a consistent routine of coming to spend a week with her brothers once every three months. All of them appreciated this far more than the uncertainty that had surrounded her eventual return for the first six months after she’d left.

“I thought you’d left for good,” Ace confessed to her the first night of that first visit. They were back in their old room in Dadan’s house, and Luffy was stretched asleep across both of them –twice as long as he normally was—and snoring loudly. When he spoke, Ace’s voice was cold and bitter with the memories of absent parents and a girl that used to quietly cry herself to sleep every night in this very room.

“Even when we’re apart, I still love you,” had been the only way Luciana could think to answer. They both knew that eventually, their lives would take them separate ways. With Ace still determined to leave and become a pirate in his own right once he turned seventeen, it was inevitable. “Until I die, I’ll always come back to you eventually. And I might still do it even then.”

He hadn’t answered the declaration with words, but had silently gripped her hand tightly in his until they fell asleep. It had been enough.

“You look better,” Grandma Izumi had observed when she’d returned from that first trip, and shown up shivering on her doorstep after having been absolutely drenched in the rain that still pounded on the roof overhead.

Luciana had smiled at her, feeling more lighthearted than she had in months despite the way her hair and clothes were plastered flat to her body. Her brothers just had that effect on people. “I feel better,” she agreed.

“Good. There’s fresh clothes in the back room. Go towel off, and I’ll make you some tea.”


	8. The Sniper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's a bit of a filler to be honest, but we get to meet Usopp!

Luciana was fond of her little boat –the first vessel she’d ever properly set sail in, the Minnow—and she liked to think she’d taken good care of it over the years they’d been together. It was really only ever meant to carry two people at a time though, and now with _four _of them crammed on board… things were getting more than a little cramped.

She’d been absurdly grateful when Nami had commandeered the cabin and declared it a girls-only zone. The space was barely big enough for two people to sleep in side by side, but it was the only indoor area on the entire boat. In deference to their greater numbers, Luciana had allowed Luffy and Zoro the use of it previously while she kept watch on the deck at night. Nami evened things out between the gender ratios though, and she was emphatically unwilling to sleep in the open air. Luffy and Zoro hadn’t argued with her.

This left Luciana in the curious position of being roommates with Nami. It wasn’t an unpleasant arrangement. For all that Nami was a girl made out of hard edges, she treated Luciana with unfailing kindness. And not the kind borne out of pity for someone she saw as disadvantaged. If anything, Nami was actually quite respectful of Luciana’s greater age and experience, and seemingly unruffled by the fact that Luciana didn’t really talk much. She merely accepted Luciana’s small tokens of affection –things like smacking Luffy every time he tried to steal food off of Nami’s plate, catching her from falling overboard three separate times after she’d been accidentally bumped on the boat’s overcrowded deck, and washing her clothes for her once since she was already washing her own—for what they were, and responded in kind. She was particularly fond of Luciana’s unruly mane of hair, and had taken to offering to wash and brush it for her in the privacy of their cabin.

Luciana, having been shaved bald for most of her childhood and having lived with unwashed mountain bandits for the rest of it, had never had anyone do this for her in this life. She’d been hesitant to accept the offer at first on account of the necessity of removing her blindfold, but Nami being Nami had never really _asked, _per say. She was the sort of person who simply did exactly as she pleased unless someone stopped her. Luciana had too big of a soft spot for all of her young nakama to ever really deny them anything if she were being honest with herself, and so she’d allowed Nami to have her way without more than a small noise of protest that went completely ignored as she’d had her head dunked in a bucket.

Despite the abrupt start, the experience was even more heavenly than Luciana anticipated it would be, and she effectively became a puddle of pliant goo beneath Nami’s fingers as she massaged scented oil into her hair. (Living on a ship meant that her hair had a lot of exposure to salt water, especially since she was so fond of swimming. The application of oil to her hair was often preferable to using soap unless there was actually something caught in her hair, since this gave her a layer of protection against the elements.) The cabin, lit only by a single candle, had been too dark for her to actually see anything with her uncovered eye. Nami hadn’t flinched when she’d seen Luciana’s full face for the first time though, and she once again experienced a pang of sorrow for this girl who had already been exposed to such violence and hardship. She was only a year older than little Luffy.

Luciana constantly had to remind herself that for all of Nami’s kindness, she intended to eventually betray them to Arlong. It made her nauseous to think about, but it wouldn’t do to forget, even if there wasn’t anything she could do about it now.

More important than knowing when to act was knowing when _not _to.

This was why, when they arrived on a seemingly abandoned island, Luciana offered to stay with the boat while her other three crewmembers explored. Gaimon wasn’t really a threat to them, and she wanted some time to herself to collect her thoughts.

It was at times like these that she missed Grandma Izumi terribly.

She spent the time on the beach, practicing some of her exercises and drills that she wasn’t able to aboard to boat, glad to have her feet back on solid ground again. The entire time, she monitored her crewmates’ movements from afar. They worked well together, even now. She was proud of them.

By the time they all reached the Gecko Islands –Syrup Village, specifically—the four of them had fallen into a comfortable rhythm with each other that Luciana knew would become the foundation of the larger crew. She herself had adopted a sort of big sister role, albeit in a somewhat hands-off sort of way. This was a relationship she already had established with Luffy, and it extended quite naturally to the other two as well considering that at only nineteen, Zoro was the oldest amongst them. Luciana couldn’t help but feel responsible for them regardless of how capable they were. It was fitting though, considering she was the official first mate. She didn’t go out of her way to involve herself in their day-to-day spats with each other, but was happy to intervene if they got too loud and often rode herd on some of Luffy’s more destructive behaviors. (She was something of a master at redirecting his energy productively at this point.)

When they landed at Syrup Village and immediately encountered Usopp, Luciana volunteered to be the one to go and buy up some more supplies for their journey. Both Zoro and Nami offered to go with her, but she waved them off with instructions to keep an eye on their Captain and to keep a lookout for anyone willing to sell them a proper ship. Reluctantly, they’d parted ways, and Luciana went about making her purchases in the market somewhat idly, as she was rather lost in thought. First impressions said and done with, she rather liked Usopp. He was a funny kid. Too nervous by far, but she planned to break him of that. She planned to break all of them, actually, in one way or another. She’d grown far too used to her role as a teacher these past fourteen years; and even if she didn’t really _know _them yet, she already knew that she loved her new nakama. She’d let the world burn before she’d see them harmed.

This, she though wryly, was both her greatest strength and greatest flaw. (Just because her strongest skill was Observation Haki, awareness of her surroundings, didn’t mean that she also didn’t practice awareness of _self_.) Perhaps it was because her first years on this world had been so terribly lonely, having been abandoned at the monastery, despite the dedicated care she’d been shown there. Perhaps it was because when she’d died and woken up here, it had felt like that it was her entire _world _was the one that died instead of herself. Perhaps it was because of the trauma of her and Robin’s forced separation (though her own unnaturally strong attachment to Robin predated this). She wasn’t sure. Whatever the reason, Luciana grew entirely too attached to the people she saw as hers. Bordering on unhealthy codependency. She was extremely possessive, in her own way, and endlessly loyal. She had the kind of loyalty that would have her choose someone of _hers _over almost any other consideration, no matter how drastic the consequences were for anybody else. For this reason, Luciana could never consider herself to be a good person.

She had a _dangerous _kind of loyalty. She could admit that.

Zoro, Nami, Usopp, and eventually Sanji probably wouldn’t enjoy the vigorousness of the training she was planning on putting them through. The kind she’d put her brothers through. Luciana was going to hurt them. They’d be stronger for it.

She was distracted from these musings when both Nami and Usopp nearly collided with her and immediately began babbling about pirates. Stashing her purchases off to the side, Luciana happily went with them and beat Kuro’s underlings unconscious with a bored sort of ruthless efficiency that Nami was now accustomed to but Usopp glanced at her sideways for.

Still, she left Kuro for Luffy and Usopp to face alone. This was an important moment, she knew, and she would never try to take it from them. Besides, she rather thought that it was important for Luffy to occasionally get things done without her help. For all that she called herself his sister, sometimes Luciana worried that Luffy would eventually grow too used to having her there to protect him. She’d essentially raised him. She’d been his teacher since he was seven years old, after all, and had made it her business to protect him from the moment they’d met. She never wanted to be the reason that he started feeling too safe in this world, and stopped growing. It could only end in trouble.

They did well.

And of course, as a reward for their actions in saving the village and Kaya, they received the Going Merry. Luffy was over the moon, and the others were relieved as well. Luciana could certainly admit that she was looking forward to having a bit more living space. Especially since Usopp would be coming with them.

“Hey, kids!” she called out to the children who’d taken to following ‘Captain Usopp’ around, and had showed up at the beach to see him off. They jumped at being addressed so directly and seemed nervous of her, but Luciana sent them a reassuring smile and gestured towards where her old boat sat bobbing abandoned in the water. “Since I’ll be leaving on the Merry, Minnow over there won’t have a crew anymore. Do you think you’ll be able to take care of her for me?”

Luciana could almost see the stars in their eyes as the children babbled their profuse thanks and assurances that the Minnow would be safe with them as her crew. She laughed and wished them luck before boarding the Merry, the last of the crew to do so. Luffy and Usopp didn’t acknowledge her, too busy bickering over who was going to be the Captain, and Nami was occupied with trying to make sure they went in the right direction when they set off. Zoro was watching her though, and didn’t even blink when she landed lightly on the deck after having leaped from the shore, her single bag of personal belongings in hand.

“That was kind of you,” he told her, jerking his chin to where the Usopp Pirates were now swarming on the deck of the boat.

Luciana just shrugged. She knew she could have sold the boat instead of giving it away, but she liked things better this way. “The Minnow carried me on my first adventure,” she revealed. “I wanted her to be able to give that gift to someone else too. They’re good kids.”

Zoro just nodded his agreement, and stood next to her in silence as they watched the Gecko Islands slowly disappear behind them.

Life on the Going Merry was infinitely better than life on her tiny boat had been. The ship held two bunkrooms –one for boys and one for girls—as well as a kitchen and galley for them to prepare and eat food. (Not that any of them were really good at the cooking part of that equation, but they were managing for now.) There was a working bathroom too, with a shower! Luciana was pretty much in heaven.

Which is why she was so _irritated _when El Drago showed up and tried to ruin their day.

She’d been _relaxing, _dammit. She _finally _had a new barrel to nap in, and what did this idiot do? Sent a bunch of thieves to their ship to steal from them with a child hostage in tow! Thieves who knocked over her barrel while boarding the ship, causing it to break into pieces around her.

So who could blame her for maybe losing her cool a little and dumping them all (child hostage excluded) into the ocean? And for swinging at El Drago himself so hard with her sea prism quarterstaff that he flew clean off the ship and disappeared out of the range of her Haki before presumably hitting the water?

“Woah, that was so _cool _Ana!” Luffy laughed and congratulated her as she stood rigid and scowling in the immediate aftermath of her little temper tantrum. She swatted his hand away as he stretched out his arm to ruffle her hair. “Whaddaya call that move?”

“It’s called the ‘fuck off’,” she muttered darkly as she watched the remainders of El Drago’s crew scramble to get away from them fast enough to possibly save their boss from drowning. Though Luciana sincerely doubted they’d make it in time.

Luffy just laughed again at her response, while Usopp let out a frightened cheep. (She and Usopp got along just fine for the most part, but he seemed to find her very intimidating and would often freeze like a frightened rabbit when she payed direct attention to him or displayed a fit of temper –most of which were usually directed at an unaffected Luffy. She enjoyed this reaction more than she probably should, but it was _funny_.) For his part, Zoro merely sighed, clearly exhausted with them all already.

Luciana sulked at them. She’d stayed up on double watch last night. She was _tired._

“This is Tobio,” Nami introduced the child to the group after a moment, seemingly having taken it upon herself to talk to the boy. Though in all fairness, she was the most personable amongst them by a wide margin. “I think I know where to find his island. We should take him home, and restock on supplies while we’re there, Captain-san.”

Luffy agreed enthusiastically, since he was apparently starving. (Though if he was, it was only his own fault, the glutton.) Luciana just gave them all a noncommittal wave and disappeared back down into her bunk in her and Nami’s shared room. She usually preferred napping out on the deck so she’d be closer to the action if anything should happen, but she’d rather not be interrupted again. She was still sore from the swimming she’d done the day before (She couldn’t let Zoro catch up to her _that _easily!) and it was making her grumpy.

She was dead asleep the instant her head hit the pillow, and didn’t emerge from the room until several hours later, when Nami came to get her for dinner. Luciana had shuffled obediently out of bed to join the others, and Luffy and Usopp excitedly told her all about the Great Gold Pirate Woonan while she ate.

“You really missed a good adventure,” her brother lamented, not reacting in the slightest to the skeptical stares everyone around the table shot him. “A treasure hunt!”

“With no treasure,” Nami pointed out, a trace bitterly.

Luffy just shrugged. “It can’t have been _that _good of a treasure. Woonan gave it all back in the end anyways.”

Nami walloped him for that, and Luciana didn’t bother trying to stop her. She’d hit Luffy harder for less. Still, she appreciated his point. Gold was just a means to an end, and usually far more trouble than it was worth. She was glad that, as much as her Captain could be a dope sometimes, he at least knew this lesson instinctively. He’d make a good King one day.


	9. First Mate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much to everyone who dropped a comment! You're all amazing and I appreciate the feedback a lot. Here's some more Ace and Luffy for you! (Lucy cries a lot in this one because her babies are growing up, leave her alone.)

For Ace’s seventeenth birthday present, Luciana gave him a small kunai liberally coated in curare plant extract. She’d handed it to him already sheathed and with a solemn warning to _never _draw it unless he wanted someone to die, and to be careful when he used it because if he _wasn’t _careful and slipped… that someone would be him.

Predictably, the twerp thought it was just about the coolest gift he’d ever received.

“Can I have one of those for _my _birthday?” Luffy demanded, goggling.

“You can handle poison once I’m dead,” she said without hesitation.

Ace sniggered, but Luciana was quite serious. For all that she called herself a bounty hunter, she wasn’t arrogant enough to deny that she was little more than an assassin. She actually used poison quite frequently in her line of work, since it turned out that she was quite knowledgeable on the subject after the medical and botany phases she'd gone through when she’d still been living with the Rondian monks and their massive library. Because of this, she knew better than anyone that poison wasn’t something to play around with. Ace, she felt, could be trusted with that responsibility, but Luffy?

Luffy would probably lick the blade just to see what would happen.

So he would get his hands on a poisoned weapon over her dead body. (And she didn’t plan on dying again anytime soon.)

It wasn’t a gift she’d given on a whim. She worried about Ace. She always had, really, even though she knew he’d surpass her in skill and deadliness soon enough and that he’d find the best crew he could ask for with the Whitebeard pirates. But she was self-aware enough to admit that Ace, of all her brothers, was _special. _She’d known him the longest, after all, and their relationship was the most hard-won. (And from the beginning, the shadow of Marineford had loomed darkly in the back of her mind every time she looked at him.) Now, as she stood with Luffy on the pier of Foosha Village, watching Ace prepare his own small boat to leave just as he’d done for her four years before… her knowledge of Ace’s fate was pounding against the inside of her skull like she shrieks of a mournful banshee.

Portgas D. Ace was her precious little brother. It was no exaggeration to say that it was her –not Dadan or Garp or _anyone _else—who’d raised him, and now he was _leaving _her and she had no choice but to let him go. It would be unfair of her to ask him to stay, she knew. He deserved the chance to taste the freedom he’d always dreamed about, and to learn and grow into his own man without her influence. Perhaps most of all though, he deserved to earn her faith and confidence in him. For her to believe in his skills and that he _was _capable. He’d never quite outgrown the need to prove himself, after all, both to his big sister and to the world in general. Smothering him at this point would probably damage their relationship irreparably. 

She had to believe that she’d done enough. Anything else would be an insult to him.

(If only it wasn’t so hard to silence her fear.)

“I’ll miss you,” Luciana blubbered, squashing Ace in her best hug and crying more than even _Luffy _usually did. “Stay safe, and eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and make sure to brush your hair once in a while and to drink enough water, and—"

“_Ana,_” Ace complained, turning red in her grasp and trying and failing to dislodge her. “C’mon, let go!”

She did, scrubbing at her runny nose, and was grateful when Luffy –fourteen now, and already so tall!—grabbed her hand in his and squeezed tightly. He was resolutely _not _crying (The sun was just a little bright this morning, is all!) and shot his older brother a surprisingly steady smile. “See you somewhere out on the high seas.”

Ace smiled at them both; and wow… when had she missed that he’d grown up while she wasn’t looking? The grubby little six-year-old with a missing front tooth and mean face that she’d first met was gone now, replaced with _this _boy –nearly a man—with strength built into his very bones and a blinding smile that was filled with such genuine happiness and love that it took her breath away to witness it. (She only stopped herself from crying again through sheer force of will, and even then… it was a close call.)

“We’ll see each other again,” he assured them. “All of us. You’re my brother and sister, after all.”

Luciana and Luffy stood motionless on the pier and watched Ace sail away from them until he’d moved so far away that she could no longer sense his presence no matter how hard she strained. (He always shone like a small sun in her mind’s eye, all compressed energy and heat and wildness that no one could ever hope to suppress or contain. He and Luffy were alike in this way.) It was a bittersweet moment, and Luciana was just the tiniest bit ashamed of the way her hand trembled in her littlest brother’s grip.

“He’s gonna be great, Ana-chan. Just you wait.”

A pause, punctuated only by the constant rush of the ocean waves beneath their feet and the squawks of a particularly disgruntled seagull.

“I never doubted him for a second.”

And she hadn’t. (Because someone could still be great, even if they were dead.) But even so… the words still sat heavily in her stomach, and tasted like a lie.

She was going to miss him.

Luciana stayed with Luffy on the island for a full two weeks after that, instead of just one. He’d be more alone once she left than he’d been since Garp had dragged him kicking and squirming to Dadan’s doorstep, and she couldn’t help but want to give him just a little more time to exist as he was now. A child. Yet even with the extra time she’d given them, her own departure snuck up on her quickly and had arrived with a bleak sort of inevitability that made her sick at heart.

As was their custom by now, Luffy woke up early to see her off. What was _uncustomary _was his rather ponderous mood.

“You didn’t want Ace to go,” he stated bluntly, quite out of the blue.

“No,” she admitted, turning to look at him askance (as best she could without eyes, at least) as Luffy walked down the path beside her on their way to the shore. “I didn’t.”

Luffy frowned. “Why not?” And Luciana could tell that he was genuinely confused. To Luffy, setting out on your own to become a pirate was literally the best thing that could happen to a person. She knew him well enough by now to know that he _did _understand things like mortality, but she also knew that he’d never understood why the risk of death wouldn’t be worth it to most people. Especially since he hadn't won a spar against his big brother to date.

Luffy was conviction given human form. Once he’d decided to do something, there were few things in this world (including the threat of his own imminent death) that could get him to stop. It was both his best and most terrifying characteristic. He just didn’t always understand that for the most part, other people didn’t usually share that sort of drive.

Luckily, Luciana happened to be fluent in Luffy. “It’s been my job to protect him for a very long time,” she explained. “It scares me that I can’t do it anymore. I’ve already failed at protecting someone twice, and I... I don't want to fail a third time, even if Ace doesn't want my help anymore.”

“Oh. That makes sense,” he said, his curiosity seemingly satisfied and his mood instantly dampened further by the ghost of their <strike>dead</strike> brother. At least… it was for about three seconds, before his round face once again screwed up in contemplation. “Wait, twice?”

Luciana scrunched up her nose. “Once and a half, I guess,” she edited. “Before you guys, I promised to protect someone else. I saved her life once, but after that I had to leave, and I couldn’t protect her anymore.”

“Like Ace.”

“Like Ace,” Luciana agreed. (It hadn’t been like Ace at all. But she didn’t have the words to explain to Luffy just how much Robin meant to her, and didn’t have the heart to tell him that she hadn’t come to or even stayed on this island by choice.) “Protecting people is about the only thing I’m good at. Not being able to do it feels like… a broken promise, almost. But worse.”

Luffy frowned at that. “And I’m the only one left,” he realized.

“Yes,” she agreed, somewhat mournfully. Briefly, she thought of Grandma Izumi, but dismissed the idea as quickly as it came. Grandma didn’t need nor want her protection, and would beat her soundly if she ever tried, the crazy old bat.

Luffy stopped dead in the middle of the road then, and Luciana barely caught herself before she ran into the back of him. She’d have been concerned if he wasn’t grinning like an absolute maniac. “That’s it!” he declared, pumping a fist into the air.

“_What’s _it?”

“Don’t you know what the first mate’s job is?”

“I have a feeling you’re about to enlighten me,” Luciana said wryly, an involuntary smile tugging at the corner of her mouth at witnessing the return to his typical enthusiasm.

Luffy wasn’t remotely deterred by her tone. “The first mate’s job is to look after the crew,” he recited excitedly. “If I’m going to be the King of the Pirates, I’m going to need the very best first mate, and that’s you! That way, we’ll never have to be apart, and you’ll have a whole _crew _of our friends to protect!”

Luciana had long expected an offer to join Luffy’s crew. She’d taken the eventuality of it for granted, even. She’d never expected the offer to come to her like _this _though, with Luffy –who normally had the social grace of an emotional drunk—suddenly being so genuinely insightful and _thoughtful _and… yeah, okay, she was totally crying again. Just a little bit. But to hear how much unconditional love and _faith _this kid had in her even after everything, she just…

“Yeah,” was all she could say to him, her voice thick with emotions she couldn’t otherwise articulate. “Okay.”

Luffy cheered.

And for the first time, their parting didn’t hurt so badly. Even more than the bonds of siblinghood, something _more _now tied them together no matter how far they were apart. A promise. Luffy was going to be her Captain one day, and the strength of that boy’s conviction to keep her at his side for _always _had lifted a weight off her shoulders that she’d never even realized she’d been carrying.

She’d never intended to love her brothers like she did. She’d never been given a choice in the matter, because Garp had chosen for her. Luciana wouldn’t have traded being with Robin for anything; but now, years later, she couldn’t help but be at least a little grateful that out of the acute trauma of their separation, she’d been given such an incredible gift as her relationships with Ace, Luffy, and Sabo. Aside from Robin, they were her greatest treasures. (She knew that there was a lot to unpack there about her inability to tie her self-worth to anything but her relationships to other people, and how she continually associated her value to them with her ability to prove useful to them as a protector; but losing them was her greatest fear and she just couldn’t help it.)

But Luffy, being Luffy, had managed to give her exactly the one thing she’d needed since being born in this world; and that was a _place _in it. A task that wasn’t just self-appointed, but _expected _of her now in a way that she knew would suit her strengths and wants exactly. (Because that’s just how Luffy was.) She felt almost dizzy with the joy of it.

Three years, Luciana thought to herself as she swung the rudder of her boat to face west, where she’d heard her next target was currently lying low. She had three years left until she and her Captain would leave his home island for good.

She’d use the time wisely.

She was going to have a crew to collect and defend soon enough, after all; and she needed to be ready.


	10. The Cook

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a new update for you! I've split the Arlong Park arc up into two chapters, so here's part one.
> 
> Also, shameless plug: if you like this story, check out my new one that I just posted! It's called "Dragonfly" and I'm keeping it as a side project to stave off writer's block. No ships in that one, but there's lots of wholesome Straw Hat family feels and working through everyone's childhood trauma. It won't update nearly as often as this one will since the chapters are WAY longer, but I'd appreciate some feedback if any of you could spare the time!

Getting so earnestly flirted with by a nineteen year old Sanji was something that Luciana –at twenty five and by this point certainly no stranger to taking her pleasure with pretty people where she could find it—thought she’d be able to handle more gracefully than she did. As it was, she got stuck somewhere between finding it kind of sweet, being a little horrified at their age difference, and not sure if she wanted to protect Nami from Sanji or (more likely) the other way around. (She was also a little bit disturbed and confused to witness the kid with the weird eyebrows turn all… wobbly, like that? Though this was more of an afterthought.) It was enough to drive her straight back into flustered speechlessness every time the idiot boy spoke because she was _very _sure he wouldn’t stop his ridiculous fawning over her and Nami no matter what she did, and she wasn’t quite sure what to _do _with that level of near-suicidal tenacity. (It wasn’t like this was how it normally happened for her. Despite being peripherally aware that her body could be considered attractive, she was also aware that she was quite literally a butterface. The fact that Sanji just seemed so damn _genuine _threw her for a loop even if she'd somewhat known to expect this kind of behavior from him.)

She liked the Baratie though. She’d been there before –though she hadn’t met Sanji at the time—and had never been disappointed by the food on offer, nor the jovial atmosphere. So when Luffy got himself in trouble for bouncing that idiotic Marine’s cannonball into the restaurant and was enlisted for a year’s service there, she wasn’t too concerned. She could afford to keep the crew fed for the entire year and then some, if need be.

There _was _no need though, of course. Inevitably, after two blissful days of peace, the other shoe dropped with all the grace and finesse of about five of Luffy’s redirected cannon balls.

Don Kreig, Dracule Mihawk, and Nami’s betrayal, all in the space of an hour! Luciana had been bracing herself for this day for weeks. (Being prepared though, didn’t make any of it less unbearable to watch.)

Because Luciana _had _to let Luffy win his fight on his own, to clear up his debt with the Baratie. She _had _to let Zoro fight and lose to Mihawk without speaking a word against it, since anything more would be insulting enough to the swordsman’s honor that he’d never, ever forgive her. And she _had _to let Nami go, because it had to be her _choice _to ask for their help. (Because Luciana refused to be just another person who took Nami’s agency away from her. Not when the Straw Hats would be the first people since Arlong invaded her home to offer the girl any kind of personal freedom.)

As their first mate, this was _literally _the nightmare scenario.

Because as their first mate, the best thing that Luciana could do at the moment was _nothing. _Meeting force with force would be pointless here, when what the situation called for first was softness. (She could almost hear Grandma Izumi cackling in the Listers from here.)

And so when Luciana felt Nami and the Merry leaving, she said nothing. When Luffy asked them to stay out of his fight with Don Kreig, she stood back and did nothing. And when stupid, _stupid _Zoro challenged Mihawk like a complete moron, Luciana stood with her knuckles white on the Baratie’s railing and did _nothing _as her nakama was cut nearly in half with the barest stroke from the most powerful (and most dramatic) man she’d yet seen_. _The stress of it all left her whole body trembling, and even Luffy glanced with her in concern as she patched Zoro up with shaking hands as the idiot boy insisted to his Captain that he’d never lose again.

(Why were swordsmen all _like _this?)

“I’ve got a fight to finish,” Luffy called over to her once Zoro was up and about again and dragging Johnny and Yosaku onto their boat so they could go after their wayward navigator. “You’ll go with him and make sure he’s okay, won’t you?”

Luciana nodded. “We’ll bring Nami back,” she vowed.

Luffy just smiled at her. “I know.”

It wasn’t as hard to leave him there as she’d thought it would be. Don Kreig was hardly a real threat, and he had Sanji with him. (However reluctant said cook claimed to be.)

“Do you really think Nami betrayed us?” Usopp asked her on their way to Arlong Park. Zoro was resting against the railing of the boat where she’d shoved him down and told him not to move or else she’d toss him over the side. (He’d scoffed at the threat, but had done as she asked after reaching out and giving her forearm a quick squeeze of reassurance. This was the closest to an apology for almost dying that she was likely to receive from him, so she appreciated it for what it was.) He was still and quiet, but Luciana could tell that he wasn’t asleep and was listening keenly for her answer.

Luciana shook her head. “It’s not as simple as that, Usopp-san,” she sighed. “Arlong’s a well-known extortionist, and has a history of rather indiscriminate violence against humans when someone isn’t there to reign him in. If Nami has somehow gotten herself involved with him… sometimes we have to hurt the people we love in order to save them.”

“I’d never do something like she did if I loved someone.”

“Wouldn’t you? Not even if I asked you to choose between protecting us and protecting Kaya?”

Usopp slumped. “Maybe,” he granted. “But we still don’t know what happened.”

“No, we don’t,” Luciana agreed sternly. “But we know Nami. She’s one of us, and something’s wrong. I’m first mate, so it’s my job to fix it.”

“Even if it turns out she was lying the whole time?”

“Yes,” she said. “Even then.” (Behind her, idiot-with-scurvy-Yosaku got snapped up by a shark. Luciana ignored him.)

With Johnny and Usopp so unwilling to enter Arlong Park proper, Luciana sent them off to look for the Merry on their own while she tied Zoro up herself.

“Why are we doing this again?” Zoro asked her, beyond grumpy but unwilling to disobey her when she’d finally barked at him to sit still and shut up when he kept trying to jump off the boat to battle the nearby fishmen. He’d been so shocked with her actually raising her voice at him that he’d frozen on the spot. She was glad he hadn’t fought her. She’d hate to kick his ass while he was injured like this, and looking at Wado –his only remaining sword—seeming almost _lonely _at his side kind of made her feel bad about doing this. (Not bad enough to stop though.)

“I want answers out of Arlong, and you men are all the same,” Luciana explained to him. “None of you can stop yourselves from monologuing when you have a captive audience.”

“…I ought to keelhaul you for that pun,” Zoro grumbled, looking away when she grinned at him.

“Just sit back and look pretty,” she told him with a condescending pat to his green head once she’d tightened up the last knot. “We should be seeing some more fishmen come along at any minute, and they’ll probably take you right to their captain. I’ll be watching the whole time, so don’t worry!” With that, she skipped off to conceal herself behind the cabin on the boat.

“You can’t _see_!” Zoro shouted after her. Luciana ignored him.

Sure enough, once the seemingly abandoned vessel was found by the rival pirate’s men, Zoro was brought before Arlong. (And then proceeded to insult him, because Zoro was more like Luffy than he was willing to admit, and did and said exactly as he pleased with little regard for the consequences until after the fact.) It was absolute child’s play for Luciana to track and follow them, and to keep herself hidden while she listened in. For all that fishmen were stronger than a normal human, this lot wasn’t any more observant; and not even Arlong noticed her keeping vigil over Zoro and Nami. It was hard to listen to Nami denounce them like this –and to listen to how Arlong talked about Nami in return—but Luciana could detect the pain and worry and self-hatred emanating from the girl with barely any effort. Though she hated to know that someone she considered a dear friend was feeling like this, in this case it was a relief. It meant that the girl hadn’t truly wanted to betray them, and that she didn’t want to stay here under Arlong’s command. Luciana wasn’t sure how she would’ve handled it if they were to truly lose Nami.

She of course paid special attention when Zoro threw himself into the water to challenge Nami’s assertions of indifference, still tied up and unable to swim –prepared to jump in and save him herself if it became necessary—but wasn’t particularly worried. She and Zoro swam together all the time, and she knew he was capable of holding his breath for much longer than this. And besides, Nami was here. Luciana knew that their navigator wouldn’t let anything serious happen to him, despite how angry and uncaring she pretended to be after pulling Zoro out of the water.

It was then that Arlong received word that Usopp had been captured in Cocoyashi Village and made preparations to go investigate. Still tied up and wheezing from Nami’s well-placed punch to the gut (which Luciana would have words with her about later once this was all over) Zoro was dragged inside the building and dumped into one of the many empty rooms on the ground floor. Most of Arlong Park was empty in fact, Luciana noted with a frown as she waited for the fishmen to clear out for the most part. She had no idea what these pirates even used this place for, which struck her as strange after they’d gone to all the trouble to build it. Was it truly all made just as a tribute to Arlong’s ego? Or for some other purpose?

She supposed it didn’t matter either way. She didn’t intend to leave any of this intact once she was done here.

Silently, Luciana slipped from behind the pillars she’d been concealed behind and crept inside to where Zoro was, tapping lightly on the doorframe with her fingernail to get his attention once she arrived.

“Finally,” Zoro complained once he caught sight of her. “Untie me already, woman!”

“Not yet,” she scolded him, positioning herself just inside the door and against the wall so that a person coming in wouldn’t immediately see her in the dim lighting of the room. “Just wait.”

Zoro opened his mouth to argue with her, but snapped it shut again with a frustrated noise when they heard footsteps begin to echo down the hall. And sure enough, Nami soon appeared in the doorway, carrying both a small knife and a cold expression. Wordlessly, she entered the room and cut Zoro free of his bonds. “Leave now,” she told him dispassionately. “Before Arlong gets back.”

When Nami turned to leave however, she came face-to-face with Luciana. Clearly not expecting that, she took a frightened step back before she was able to recover her calm façade. Luciana wasn’t making any particular effort to appear threatening, but the situation being what it was, she supposed it couldn’t be helped. Nami knew very well how protective Luciana was of the crew, and the girl’s heart was racing in her chest at her sudden appearance, clearly assuming the worst.

“Thanks for keeping Zoro-san safe,” Luciana thanked her gently, in the same sweet way she might have thanked her for making dinner for the group not a week ago.

Nami swallowed once, but didn’t otherwise outwardly betray the spike in the bone-deep terror that Luciana had sensed running through her from the moment she’d set foot on this island and that had only increased the longer they stood motionless, facing each other. (Luciana was less and less sure that she should have confronted Nami in this way, never having wanted any of her nakama to feel this afraid of her. Didn’t she know that Luciana would never harm her?) “Like I said,” Nami rasped. “You both need to leave.”

“If that’s _really _what you want, then we’ll walk out of this building and go to the village they’ve got Usopp-san at so we can free him right now,” Luciana agreed, crossing her arms and tilting her head curiously.

“It _is_.”

“_But,_” she qualified, ignoring Nami’s sharp input like she hadn’t even heard it, “you should know by now that it’s _my _job to take care of the crew. And like it or not, that includes you. So. Is there anything you want to tell me, Nami-chan?”

For the span of a heartbeat, Luciana almost thought Nami would cave and ask for help right here and now. Of all the crew, she and Luffy were the ones she’d been the closest to, after all. Longing nearly _consumed _Nami at the implied offer of protection. But in the next moment, all that was gone and the girl’s hands were shaking with… anger? (At this point, she couldn’t tell any longer. She was quite sure Nami didn’t even know herself.)

“No,” Nami said coldly. “There isn’t.”

Luciana didn’t doubt her own skill. She’d devoted too much of her life to her chosen arts for that. Arlong would be a tough kill –her specialty was really devil fruit users, since they were easy marks that both overestimated their own abilities and underestimated their weaknesses—but she was by no means limited to this demographic alone and _he _wasn’t anywhere close to invincible. She could (and _would_) end his miserable life the moment Nami gave the word. But Nami needed to _trust _her enough to actually follow through on the act if she asked, and she didn’t. Not yet.

She’d been expecting it. She knew that the rejection spoke more to Nami’s own trust issues rather than her feelings about Luciana’s abilities as a protector in particular. It still stung.

But Luciana was a warrior who knew when to act, and when to keep _still_. When to meet force with force, and when to roll with the figurative punches so she could save her strength to act in the right moment.

Nodding her respect of Nami’s decision, Luciana reluctantly stepped aside and cleared the doorway, and Nami walked past her without a word.

Zoro moved up from behind her and rested a strong hand on her shoulder. “Come on,” he said, his voice rough. “We’ve got to find a way to this village.”

Luciana exhaled. (It sounded so loud in the silence that Nami had left behind.) Right.

Beating up all the fishmen remaining in Arlong Park with Zoro was extremely cathartic, though by the end of it Luciana still hadn’t managed to quench the tidal wave of impotent rage building up inside of her. (Only one fishman could truly slake _that _thirst.) One extremely strange ride from an (ostensibly deeply confused, but probably just sympathetic) Hatchman later though, and they arrived at their destination, fortunately running into Luffy, Sanji, and Yosaku almost immediately.

That was when Johnny arrived, along with the news that Nami had murdered Usopp. Followed by Nami, who _also _insisted that she’d murdered Usopp, and that (again) they all needed to leave.

Luciana had no idea how Nami could have expected Luffy to do anything other than what he did, and refuse. He had more faith in his little finger than ten lesser men did in their whole bodies. Though she imagined that this probably scared Nami more than anything, since there was no question that where Luffy led, the rest of them would follow. It meant they wouldn’t give up on her. Still, she couldn’t contain her smile of approval when Luffy declared that he was going to take a nap right there in the middle of the road and Nami stormed off in a huff.

Sure enough, Usopp showed back up almost immediately afterwards, since Nami had actually _saved _his life, not taken it.

Perhaps the others –not having known Luffy for as long as she had—didn’t see the change in him with this revelation, but Luciana certainly did. The last bit of doubt weighing him down nearly visibly evaporated and was replaced with shining bands of unadulterated determination. The same brand of determination that led him to refuse Nojiko’s deal of sharing Nami’s story in exchange for them leaving the island behind.

Not that Luciana accepted the offer either.

“I think I’ll just go find somewhere to take a nap,” she said, already walking away from where Nami’s sister stood with Sanji and Usopp, seemingly stunned and frustrated by hers, Luffy’s, and Zoro’s disinterest in hearing what she had to say.

She didn’t go far. And once she sensed Nojiko moving away from the boys as their conversation ended, Luciana followed her at a sedate pace. As she’d known she would, Nojiko unwittingly led her all the way to the outskirts of the village, to her and Nami’s home. In any other circumstance, Luciana would have greatly enjoyed the chance to explore a place that was so precious to one of her nakama. It was certainly charming. But as it was, the Marines had already arrived and were in the process of confiscating everything that Nami had slaved so selflessly and tirelessly to gain.

She didn’t interfere. Not until one of the Marines aimed a gun at Nami, that is, and Nojiko made to put herself between her sister and the bullet.

Instead, it was _Luciana _who intercepted the bullet. She did so with her bare hand, protected with a sudden shift into Iron Body. It crumpled against her palm –much to all of the witnesses’ awe and horror—and she clutched it tightly in her fist afterwards, visibly shaking with rage as it threatened to consume her once more.

She _hated _this.

She _hated _having to watch Nami suffer so much and not be able to do a thing about it.

The Marines fled with Nami’s beri. Luciana didn’t give chase, and instead stepped aside so that Nojiko –who she’d kept a steadying grip on with her free hand after shoving her out of the way rather abruptly—could comfort her sister. Nami didn’t seem to want to be comforted however, and without acknowledging Nojiko, Luciana, or even Genzo, she took off running back towards the village proper to no doubt confront Arlong himself.

Luciana approved. It was a confrontation that was a long time coming. She didn’t follow her.

Beside her, Nojiko sank to the ground and put her head in her hands. Luciana felt a sharp pang, seeing her so defeated. She couldn’t imagine being in Nojiko’s place. (Or perhaps she _could_, which was the problem. Luciana was a big sister too, and if any of her boys had _ever _been put into a position like Nami’s she’d have… well, she preferred not to think about it. She certainly wouldn’t have handled it with such grace.)

With deliberate slowness, Luciana knelt next to Nokijo’s slumped form and tapped on her hand to get her attention. “Here,” she offered, tenderly pressing the crumpled bullet into the other woman’s palm and curling her fingers back over it firmly. “Keep it.”

Slowly, Nojiko raised her head stared up at her with swimming eyes. “Why?” she choked. “Why should I? It doesn’t matter anymore. _Nothing _does.”

“You’ve loved her. All this time,” Luciana pointed out. “You’ve protected her from things far worse than bullets.”

“Not from this one.”

Luciana smiled and squeezed her hand. “No, not from this one,” she agreed. “But you _would _have, and that’s all that matters, isn’t it? Keep it. As a reminder to keep trying to shield her from the next one.”

With a breathy laugh of something that sounded a little like disbelief, Nojiko obediently clenched her fist tightly around the bullet with a strength that was built from a lifetime of hard work. “Nami won’t survive having to do this a second time,” she said, her voice suddenly calm and sure.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Luciana prevaricated. She honestly didn’t know, and didn’t plan on ever having to find out. She rose back upright in a single smooth motion, and held out a hand to Nojiko to help her to her feet. “She’s your sister. What are you gonna do about it?”

By virtue of her near constant use of Observation Haki, Luciana was by default somewhat of a student of human nature. There were people in this world that she firmly believed weren’t worth the waste of oxygen to keep them alive. Still, she was always deeply humbled and grateful when she was able to observe moments like this. Moments that allowed her a small glimpse into the true beauty of the human spirit. Moments like _now_, when Nojiko wrapped the bright and boundless love she bore for her little sister up around her like a suit of armor and took Luciana’s hand to pull herself back up. Nojiko’s quiet resolve to save Nami or die trying rang out into the skies above like the crescendo of a golden symphony, and it was almost painful to think that she was the only one on the island right now who could hear it.

“Genzo,” Nojiko said lightly to the man who, up until this point, had been fidgeting awkwardly in the background. She didn’t take her eyes off the warm smile that had taken up residence on Luciana’s face, and smiled in return, momentarily distracting Luciana with the belated realization that this woman was _pretty_. “Gather everyone up. Nami’s done enough. It’s _our _turn now.”

Yes, was all Luciana could think. _That’s _more like it.


	11. Missed Opportunity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for brief mentions of past rape and past character death. Nothing graphic, but I don't want anyone taken by surprise.

When Luciana thought of Robin, she thought of Rondia’s blue skies and the sticky sweetness of the honeycomb Robin would steal straight from the hives that they’d giggle and break pieces off of with their fingers, licking them clean. She thought of long Sundays spent climbing trees and telling stories, and of chilly mornings when their breath hung frozen in the air, warmed only by the blanket they snuggled under together and the piping hot potatoes they’d bake in the coals of Robin’s campfire. Robin was the smell of the cheap rosemary soap they sold down at the market, and the achingly familiar lilt of French murmured to each other in the late afternoon. She was the taste of the walnuts that Luciana would bring down from the monastery’s storage every week as a Sunday treat, and the glossy smoothness of the dark hair that she always let Luciana card her fingers through, fascinated and delighted by the texture since she had none of her own.

Sometimes she’d be reminded of a specific memory, like the day nearly a year after they’d met when Luciana had shown up at the treehouse with a handful of bounty posters with Robin’s face on them that she’d stolen from the day’s news coos. Robin’s expression had morphed into a heartbreaking mix of horrified betrayal and complete resignation at the sight and she’d tensed as if to run. (Luciana tried not to be offended. Four years after the destruction of Ohara, and Robin had already been betrayed by people she’d thought she could trust countless times. She wasn’t unaware that Robin had come to believe that _everyone _would eventually abandon or betray her, one way or another.) Instead, she’d just grinned and held up a fresh matchbox. “Wanna have a bonfire?” she’d asked.

Robin had cried, which she’d felt a little bad about; but it was also the first time that Robin was the one to initiate one of their hugs, and so Luciana held the incident close to her heart.

Not all of her memories of Robin were purely heartwarming, of course. Even years later, Luciana could still remember the awkward mortification of arriving in the tree house one morning only to find Robin scrubbing at the floorboards in vain with a rag to remove the blood stain that had been the result of the sudden and unexpected arrival of her first period. Robin had explained the problem in her with usual matter-of-fact, blasé affectation, but her face had been as pale as Luciana’s was red. Luciana had stepped up and helped her clean both the floor and her blankets, of course, but hadn’t quite known what to say or do to soothe the lines of pain at the corner of Robin’s eyes and bring an end to her pensive silence that Luciana wasn’t quite sure what to make of. (It wasn’t like she could just pop a Midol in this world, and poor Robin had enough trauma to sort through that Luciana could only guess at what was bothering her so much.) She’d settled for making some tea for her, and settling her back into bed early with the assurances that she’d come back and bring some proper sanitary products as soon as she could.

That had been one of the many times where Luciana had felt that –even as generally content on Rondia as Robin seemed to be—that neither the island nor Luciana herself would ever be _enough _to patch up the wounds that Robin’s awful past had left her with. Wounds that dated back much farther than the destruction of Ohara, if Robin’s offhand mentions of her awful aunt were anything to go by. It formed a knot of helplessness in her belly that she never could seem to eliminate entirely, no matter how much she loathed the feeling.

But most of all, when Luciana thought of Robin, she remembered how _exhilarating _it was… giving the whole of herself to another person for safekeeping. Robin was the first person that she’d trusted –truly trusted, without even a hint of hesitation or doubt—since she’d been killed in her last life. Giving that sort of power over her heart and mind to another person after an experience like _that _felt a lot like jumping out of a plane and hoping that someone else would pull the cord on the parachute before she hit the ground.

It was a lasting trauma, after all. Perhaps not to the scale of watching your entire hometown be destroyed and everyone in it die, but Luciana wasn’t in the habit of scaling one person’s pain to another’s. Pain was pain. It had still affected her deeply, which in hindsight was perhaps why she and Robin had bonded so frighteningly closely so frighteningly quickly. They were two girls who were normally quite slow to trust, but despite astronomical odds had found each other anyways and had recognized something of themselves in each other.

When Luciana thought of Robin, sometimes, she thought of nightmares.

Their Sunday excursions often became sleepovers. Sister Laika, Luciana’s main caretaker, was aware that Luciana often spent her days off with “a friend in town” and would sometimes stay the night there, so Luciana wasn’t reluctant to do so on this account. She’d been rather excited, actually. She and all her crechemates shared a bedroom at the monastery, but they were less her friends and more her classmates, or close roommates. Sleepovers with them weren’t special, but Luciana treasured every minute she and Robin spent together. (In fact, the first time Robin had actually _asked_ her to stay instead of just tucking a blanket around her after she’d passed out in the treehouse, Luciana squealed so loudly that Robin had laughed and conjured a hand her to cover her mouth.) Luciana enjoyed the experience for the most part, and relished in the opportunity to share such tranquil bonding time with her. There was really only one drawback. 

Robin had a lot of nightmares. Luciana had expected as much with what Robin had told her about her life, and so tended to keep a close watch on her during the night. Not because Robin’s nightmares disturbed her sleep, but because they _didn’t. _She’d learned to cry in complete silence long before they’d met –apparently, the quickest way to get yourself kicked off a pirate’s ship was to be a “whining brat”—and didn’t like her dreams to be acknowledged at all. Luciana had therefore taken to forcing herself to sleep lightly when with Robin, so that she could wake and silently cuddle up against her when she felt the light jostling of her shaking shoulders. Robin never responded verbally to this, but from the way she’d lean back into Luciana’s hold and allow her to curl around her, she imagined she was grateful, even if only a little.

Luciana didn’t mind. She was no stranger to nightmares, and understood Robin’s feelings about them for the most part.

Robin discovered this for herself very early on, only the third time they slept next to each other. It had been a particularly exhausting day for them, and Luciana hadn’t been able to help falling deeply asleep nearly the instant they’d both clambered back into the warmth of the treehouse. So of course, _this _was the night her subconscious decided was an excellent time to remind her that she hadn’t lived a life without pain or suffering, no matter how idyllic this one seemed. She’d woken up sweating and shaking with a choked cry, only to be greeted by a pair of sharp blue eyes staring at her from a childish face bearing a carefully neutral expression.

“Sorry,” Luciana gasped, swallowing hard and forcing her breathing to even out. “I’m okay.”

“Are you?” Robin questioned, and though her affect was blank, her voice was soft. She was always soft with Luciana. She was the oldest, after all, and seemingly felt as if Luciana needed looking after. Which… she appreciated a surprising amount, actually. She'd been a remarkably independent and self-sufficient child, and it had been a long time since anyone had bothered to try and take care of her the way Robin did.

Still, there wasn’t a need for Robin to worry. Not about this particular danger, at least. It had long passed. “Yeah,” Luciana assured her, scooting into Robin’s space and humming with satisfaction when the other girl pulled her close to her side. “I wasn’t, but I’m okay now, mostly.”

“Will you tell me about it?”

Luciana exhaled. And… yeah, she would. Robin of all people, she felt, would understand. She’d just… never spoken about it before, to anyone. (She’d _died_, after all, and it had been _years._) “It was… a long time ago,” she began haltingly. “It doesn’t bother me now, most of the time; but no matter how many times I’ve tried, I’ve never been able to completely forget what… what happened.”

Blue eyes watched her languidly, clear and without judgement. Luciana lay nose to nose with Robin, and thought that if she broke her gaze she might lose the courage to speak. That the words that were clogging her throat so thickly now would be swallowed down, never to escape her again.

“I was out alone, at night,” she forced herself to continue, her voice gone flat. “it was… stupid. But I’d been working all day, and I was tired, and I thought it wouldn’t matter.” She laughed bitterly. “I guess it did. I was attacked by two men. Chased into an alley. I… wasn’t any good at fighting, then. They… they…” Her voice cracked, and she trailed off.

“What did they do?” And _oh, _Robin was _angry. _Luciana could feel it in the way her small hands clutched at her, and saw it written plainly in her normally stoic face.

“They… touched me,” Luciana admitted shakily, unable to elaborate more than that. “And when they were done, they left me for dead. I _should _have died, and there was… I’m still not sure how I’m here right now.” (She _had _died. There's been... so much blood. But then she'd opened her eyes again, and she'd been _here._)

“I’ll kill them.”

Luciana wasn’t sure if it was a statement, or an offer. “Don’t bother,” she said, having decided that it didn’t really matter, though it made her feel warm to be under Robin’s protection like this either way. “They’re dead.” (It was true enough. Death was a door that closed both ways. Luciana might have been the one who died, but the ones who killed her couldn’t reach her here.) “Like I said, it was a long time ago.”

“You still dream about it,” Robin pointed out. She looked _wounded._

Luciana smiled at her. “I always will,” she said gently, sharing a conclusion that it had taken her _years _to internalize and that even now she sometimes still struggled with. “And it will always hurt me to remember it. It was the worst thing to ever happen to me, after all. I just hope it stays that way. That’s why I work so hard to learn from the monks, so I’ll never be in that position again.”

Robin nodded her understanding and squeezed her tight, pressing their foreheads together. “I’m sorry that happened to you,” she said, echoing Luciana’s statement from their first meeting.

“Bad things happen every day, and mostly to good people,” Luciana told her solemnly. It was something she constantly had to remind herself of, because once she started the blame game with herself, it was hard to pull herself out of that manner of thinking. “When I grow up, I want to stop them.”

Robin teared up. “I hope you do,” she whispered. She sounded choked, and Luciana didn’t have to imagine how many memories of the unjust abuses she’d suffered were playing out in her mind’s eye right now. “I wish someone would’ve, for us.”

“We’ll take care of each other, now,” Luciana promised.

“We’ll take care of each other,” Robin agreed.

Neither of their nightmares stopped after that. It was nice though, when they woke up safe and together. It made Luciana’s fears feel distant and small. Robin’s presence shouted down her ghosts, because how could Luciana feel helpless and alone when she knew Robin was right there? She trusted Robin to keep her safe, even from the threats that now only existed in her own mind.

Now, at twenty-four, Luciana had long since learned to keep herself busy for most of the day. When she was staying in the Listers, Grandma Izumi certainly worked her hard enough to chase away any thoughts that didn’t revolve around her aching muscles. And on her own, Luciana was able to occupy herself with the challenges of navigating the seas or tracking her latest target. It was during the _nights _that she often missed Robin the most. Nights were still and quiet, and left her all too keenly aware of Robin’s absence since nights had often been the times they’d felt the closest. Luciana still had nightmares. She had more traumas to dream about now than she’d ever had before, even, and did so often. (Sometimes, she woke up with her scars stinging and fully expecting to see again. Sometimes, she still flinched away from open flames as though they’d leap off the candle wick and consume her whole.) Though she’d learned how to manage her own mental health fairly well on her own, she _missed _waking up to the safety and warmth she’d felt with Robin.

She thought of her whenever she encountered a tree that seemed perfect for climbing. She thought of her whenever she tasted honey or walnuts. She thought of her on cold mornings, and when she smelled rosemary, and when she combed out the tangles in her hair. But most of all, Luciana thought of Robin when she woke up alone from the grip of one of her nightmares and she wondered if Robin still cried soundlessly to herself on nights like these.

Luciana had certainly done so before Garp had brought her Luffy as a student, but it became easier to deal with once she had her three brothers. Even now, curled up here in her boat’s little cabin, Luciana felt warm and cared for to a certain extent. She had people who loved and cared about her awaiting her safe return to them.

But Robin… Robin was alone.

Luciana thought a lot about that day when they’d been pulled apart. In the beginning, she’d _obsessed _over it, convinced that she must have missed some tiny detail that would have somehow allowed them both to escape. It had taken years for her to accept that –even if she rarely thought of herself as a child—she _had _been one, then. That there was simply no possible way for her to have avoided the inevitable confrontation once Garp had gotten it into his head to search for them, and no reasonable way to expect her to have defeated him either. (Though one day, she promised herself, she’d give it her best shot. If only to see if she could actually do it.) In a way, she was actually a little proud of herself for how it had all turned out, considering that they could’ve easily both been killed (or worse).

Still, she wondered. What had Robin thought, when she’d fully come to surrounded by unconscious Marines, only to find Garp and Luciana both gone? Had she looked for them? Had she taken the chance to run? How had she managed to leave the island? (She’d never forgotten the horror and desperation in Robin’s voice when she’d called out her name as Garp carried her away. She dreamed about that too.) There was no way to know what really happened until they met again in person. Sometimes, Luciana wasn’t sure she truly _wanted _to know. Wasn’t it enough that Robin hadn’t been caught yet? (She’d have heard about it if she was. The World Government’s propaganda machine wouldn’t have stayed quiet about the capture of the last scholar of Ohara in the least.)

Having their time together ended so abruptly felt chillingly like erasure. It had taken _years _of kindness and safety before Robin had finally begun acting more like an unusually intelligent child and less like a cornered animal. Luciana hated the knowledge that once she’d been cast out of her safe haven, that all of Robin’s progress in this area had probably been obliterated in an instant. She _hated _knowing that the person she’d promised to protect had once again been forced to take care of herself in a world that certainly wouldn’t be kind to a fourteen-year-old criminal, and that she’d been powerless to stop it from happening.

Would Robin be different, she wondered, when they met again? If Miss All-Sunday showed up on Whiskey Peak –which Luciana definitely planned to be present for—it will have been fourteen years since their separation.

Fourteen years was a long time.

Would Robin even be happy to see her again? Luciana imagined so, since Robin had always been unfailingly loving and kind. She couldn’t help but worry that she was angry about the perceived abandonment though. Deal or no deal, Luciana _had _left even though she’d promised not to. Had enough time passed for her to be forgiven if that was the case? She didn’t know.

This line of thinking was something that Luciana had forced herself away from early on. The only thing it accomplished was turning her into a nervous wreck, constantly worrying for Robin’s physical and emotional safety despite her complete inability to do anything about it.

Patience. Let all things come in their own time.

(Thirteen years of absence and Luciana was so _tired _of waiting.)

She wasn’t sure why she was so shocked then, when in the middle of enjoying her first-ever dinner at the Baratie, she was approached by a pair of other diners who introduced themselves as Mr. 7 and Miss Leap Year. She honestly should have seen the offer coming, having known that Zoro would at some point be approached by this particular agent of Baroque Works himself. Was she not a well-known East Blue bounty hunter as well? Yet she’d never truly considered that she’d have the opportunity to take this last step towards Robin offered to her on a silver platter like this.

“Excuse me miss, but would you happen to be the bounty hunter known as the Black Sight?” came the approach. Luciana took one look at the ridiculous seven motif that the male member of the pair had going on (garish enough that even without eyes, the raised embroidery on his coat and seven-themed earrings were readily apparent to her senses) and lost her ability to do anything but nod in the affirmative.

This Mr. 7 was an arrogant jackass, but Miss Leap year was more loquacious and actually talked a pretty good game. Of course, she wasn’t to know that Luciana wasn’t actually interested in joining an up-and-coming bounty hunter’s guild based in the Grand Line that would help her maximize her profits and provide her with near-infinite resources. Coming from anybody else, Luciana might have been flattered that she was considered amongst the top bounty hunters in the East Blue and an ideal candidate for richer waters. As it was, it was all she could do to try to hide how fast her mind was racing mid-conversation.

This was her chance. If she could join Baroque Works and fight her way high enough into the ranks, surely she’d encounter Robin fairly quickly? She’d always gotten the impression that it was Robin who handled the day-to-day running of the secret organization. Crocodile had a vested interest in staying anonymous after all, and Luciana doubted he was smart enough to handle the practical details of his grandiose plan in the first place. No doubt, Miss All Sunday would eventually turn up to evaluate her in person if she proved herself capable enough to make it onto a team with a numbered agent.

The problem was, Luciana wouldn’t know what to do after that. She couldn’t in good conscience contribute to inciting civil war in Alabasta just to please a megalomaniacal moron like Crocodile. She could try to convince Robin to run away with her… but where would they go? They’d have the entirety of Baroque Works _and _Crocodile on their asses from the get-go thanks to such a betrayal, and while Luciana didn’t generally think much of their actual skill, she knew full well that she wasn’t immortal and could be both trapped and outnumbered. And they _would _be, eventually. Crocodile wouldn’t take his partner’s defection lightly.

She could kill him. Luciana was an assassin by trade, and figured she stood a fair chance against the warlord even with his logia fruit, between her sea prism weapons, her Haki, and everything she’d had beaten into her by Garp and Grandma Izumi. That could get very dicey though, because if she wasn’t able to find an opportunity to face him alone, Luciana knew her chances of success would plummet dramatically. She wouldn’t have anyone to back her up except for possibly Robin, if she was even able to get her on board with the plan at all. And that wasn’t even taking into account the fact that Alabasta would be _crawling _with Marines the instant one of their pet Warlords was attacked. They’d have to escape them too.

No, she realized. This shortcut wouldn’t do her or Robin any good in the long run. No matter how strong they became, it wasn’t feasible for the two of them to face down the Grand Line alone. Things would catch up to them eventually. It just wasn’t _safe_ to travel without a crew.

Luffy was sixteen now, with less than a year left before he’d set sail. Luciana wouldn’t forget the agreement she’d reached with her littlest brother to be his first mate. They would be stronger together. (Strong enough to get rid of Crocodile and his rash ambitions, and to keep both Alabasta and Robin _safe._)

Patience in all things, Luciana counselled herself. It was worth doing this _right. _For all of them.

“I’m flattered by the offer,” Luciana told the Mr. 7 pair after taking a long swig of water, cutting Miss Leap Year off mid recruitment pitch. “But I’m afraid I’ll have to decline. I have unfinished business here in the East Blue.” (She wanted to _scream. _She wanted _Robin._)

The Baroque Works agents were visibly displeased by her refusal, but didn’t dare protest and took their leave soon afterwards without drawing a single blade.

Only a complete idiot would try to make a scene in the Baratie, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who's left a review! I hope you all liked this chapter. It didn't necessarily further the plot, but I thought it was important to setting the stage for their eventual reunion. Arlong Park will conclude next chapter.


	12. Freedom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A wrap-up to Arlong Park.

Luciana didn’t think she’d ever felt as much sheer _relief _as she had the moment when Nami finally –_finally—_broke down and asked Luffy for help.

“OF COURSE I WILL!” Luffy had belted into the sky, and Luciana had felt sorely tempted to join him.

Instead, she settled for pulling her quarterstaff from her back and into her hands and turning towards Arlong Park with deadly purpose, even as Luffy pressed his hat onto Nami’s bowed head for safekeeping. (That gesture alone made Luciana’s heart feel as though it were being squeezed tightly in her chest. Luffy’s hat was his _treasure. This _was the strength of her Captain’s loyalty to his nakama.)

She was proud of him. She was proud of the villagers too, and especially proud of Nami for finally finding the strength to share the burden that had been so unfairly loaded onto her young shoulders.

Nami had _them _now. Now, she was unstoppable.

There was no role that Luciana felt more comfortable in than that of a protector. No time in her life where she felt as truly grounded than she did when she was able to keep someone she loved _safe, _and now, she was finally being given the opportunity to avenge every drop of blood that was seeping down Nami's shoulder. To avenge every drop of blood that had been shed since Arlong had first set foot on this island. Luffy's conviction was burning bright and unwavering at her side and it echoed by the rest of the crew to no lesser degree because Nami was _theirs _and they wouldn't let her suffer anymore. It was a heady feeling, and Luciana knew that her expression must have been bordering on wild as they approached the doors to Arlong Park and the villagers –previously held back by Johnny and Yosaku—stepped out of the way of their little group without a word.

She and Luffy kicked down the doors themselves.

“Which one of you is Arlong?” Luffy asked calmly as they stared out at the assembly of shocked fishmen.

Arlong himself answered, his shark face contorted in a sneer. “_I _am Arlong. And who are you supposed to be?”

“I’m Luffy. I’m a pirate.”

“A pirate? What business does a pirate have with me?”

Luffy answered by punching him solidly in the face, sending him flying. Luciana couldn’t help but smile viciously.

“What the hell do you think you’re _doing_?” Arlong howled, righting himself.

“YOU MADE MY NAVIGATOR CRY!” Luffy howled right back, his expression finally breaking with his rage.

At this point, a handful of Arlong’s crew moved to intervene, but Luciana quickly put a stop to any such plans by taking a swing at the nearest fishman to her. The unfortunate pirate was blasted back into his fellows with a loud crunch, and by the end of it, five fishmen were laid out motionless on the ground.

This certainly caught Arlong’s attention, and she couldn’t help but take advantage of it. She took a single deep breath, and then…

“Fisher Tiger would be _ashamed of you_, Arlong,” Luciana spat, projecting her voice enough that every last person present could hear the surety of her tone.

Complete silence fell over the courtyard at the words as Arlong’s crew gaped at her incredulously. Even her own crew sent her curious glances, no doubt wandering what on earth she was talking about. Luciana didn’t stop though.

“That man dedicated his _life _to ending slavery and oppression in all its forms, and to instilling equality. And yet the moment he died, the first thing you did was to come here to the East Blue and SHIT ALL OVER HIS DREAM!” Luciana screamed, and… yeah. She had a lot of feelings about this.

Fishmen the world over absolutely had a valid grievance against the World Government for how despicably they’d been treated. The slavery that the Celestial Dragons practiced was abhorrent, and Luciana didn’t much appreciate the rampant racism that held sway over the majority of the human populace either. That was absolutely no excuse for what Arlong had done to the innocents here though. Arlong might have wanted revenge, but the only thing he’d accomplished by attacking peaceful people innocent of wrongdoing was to perpetuate the cycle of hatred and violence, and Luciana couldn’t stand for it. She absolutely supported the violent uprising of slaves against their oppressors, but _these_ people weren't oppressors. Arlong had gone far past that point and become an oppressor in turn.

“You’re no better than the humans who hurt you in the first place,” Luciana concluded, spitting at his feet, “and we’re going to stop you.”

If Arlong had been enraged before, that was _nothing _compared to the apoplectic fury that seized him now at this telling off. Especially since his crew was still standing conspicuously silent and not looking all that much like they disagreed with the accusation. Luciana felt sympathy for them, and for everything they’d been through. She really did. But having been hurt didn’t give _anyone _the right to go around harming innocents indiscriminately. (This world was _full _of hurt. An eye for an eye would only make the whole world blind. Luciana knew that firsthand, and the people of Cocoyashi hadn’t deserved this. Had never been involved with the Celestial Dragons in the first place.)

Things moved quickly after that.

An (adorable) vicious sea cow was summoned and subsequently intimidated away again. Zoro, Sanji, and Usopp took on the fishmen pirates that finally seemed to have snapped out of the guilty stupor that Luciana’s words had put them in and halfheartedly went after the invading humans. Luffy and Luciana, on the other hand, delivered such a beating on Arlong that to the villagers watching, she imagined it looked a little like a particularly violent tennis match as they smashed him back and forth between them.

Arlong attempted to go on a tilt about fishmen being the superior race, of course, but he seemed to lose some of his steam when Luffy just kept popping back up no matter how hard he was hit and he broke two entire rows of his sharp teeth on Luciana’s torso without leaving so much as a scratch on her.

For her part, Luciana was having a great time. Arlong was strong, but his will was broken and weak, which made it easy for her and her brother to pummel him into the pavement. Things only got better when Nami arrived, still bloody but absolutely resplendent in her own renewed courage when she announced that she was here to kill Arlong. Luciana grinned widely at her, and redoubled her efforts as Luffy got himself tossed into the tower’s map room and proceeded to destroy the building from the top down. After helping Luffy from the wreckage, she made doubly sure that not a single brick of it was left standing, and spitefully smashed a few walls apart in such a way that the debris fell directly on top of where Arlong’s unconscious body was buried. (And if anyone cared that Luciana made a few rounds to the outbuildings and knocked them down too before the dust had even settled, no one said anything.)

Victory was always a good feeling. It felt better this time though, because of Nami and how much this particular fight meant to her. (Nami was her precious friend. Luciana would take down a hundred pirates for her if she asked.)

“Ana-san, _why didn’t you tell me that you were a monster too?_” Usopp spluttered the moment she and Luffy joined the rest of their crew sans Nami (who was speaking animatedly to Genzo), both of them dusty and scuffed but none the worse for wear.

Sanji kicked the sniper sharply in the shin. “Don’t insult the lovely Ana-swan!” he insisted. “Her fighting style is as graceful and elegant as she is!”

“Thank you, Sanji-kun,” Luciana said mildly as her brother just cracked up laughing next to her and Zoro appeared more irritated than she’d ever seen him. “But I was the one who taught Luffy how to fight. Surely you expected me to have some skill, Usopp-san?”

Usopp did a double-take at that tidbit of information. “Whaa?”

“Did I not mention that before?” Luciana asked, unsure why he looked so surprised. Even Zoro and Sanji appeared thoughtful.

“Ana taught me lots of things!” Luffy chimed in helpfully. “She hits really hard.”

Everyone sweatdropped in reaction, and Luciana could only massage the bridge of her nose as if warding off a stress headache. Though in this instance, she may have been warding off the urge to give her nakama a live demonstration of how much violence she was prepared to use against her little idiot brother. (Quite a bit, typically. Not that Luciana really appreciated it being brought up in conversation like this.)

“Eh? Ana-chan’s hitting _who _now?” Nami asked, popping up out of seemingly nowhere and looping her arms in Usopp and Zoro’s as she stood between them.

“Luffy, apparently,” Zoro answered her with his typical serious drawl.

“Oh.” There was an awkward silence as they all glanced at Luffy’s unfaltering cheerful grin and Luciana’s quiet despair over salvaging the conversation. “That makes sense.”

Luciana let out a pained noise. “_Anyways,” _she started again, desperate to change the subject as quickly as possible. “I’m hungry. Ne, Nami, you probably know someplace to get something to eat around here, don’t you?” she begged.

Nami’s smile grew positively predatory. “Don’t worry,” she assured them. “Here in the Conomi Islands, we know how to celebrate _right_.”

Later that evening, Luciana had to admit that Nami hadn’t been kidding. The crew and the recently-freed villagers had left the rubble of Arlong Park behind them almost immediately after that conversation, leaving the remaining fishmen to collect their wounded and move on as they wished. (Though Luffy had delivered an uncharacteristically stern warning to them that if they ever tried something like this again, he and his crew would find them and they wouldn’t be so merciful the second time.) They’d walked all the way back to Cocoyashi Village and there, the grateful villagers had proceeded to throw them the biggest party that Luciana had ever attended.

Entire pigs were roasted whole over open bonfires, and three of the biggest woks that Luciana had ever seen were filled to the brim with mushrooms and leeks that filled the air with a heavenly smell as they were spiced and fried. And, of course, it seemed as if there was an infinite number of citrus-themed dessert foods being shoved at them by a smiling villager everywhere they turned. The cool night air rang with music from various groups of musicians and singers, and the people of Cocoyashi had set up several games for the children and interested adults to play. They wanted to go all out for their rescuers, it seemed.

Not that any of the Straw Hats were complaining. Luffy was in absolute heaven, finally allowed to eat as much as he could fit into his rubber stomach, and Zoro had found himself a group of young men who had offered him sake. (Taking note of how many empty casks already littered the ground around them, Luciana mentally wrote him off for the rest of the night.) Sanji seemed to be flitting around on winged feet as he danced between the young women of the village, fawning over each for as long as they’d let him and occasionally showing off by creating some small dish that was always accepted with cheers and calls for more. Nami herself was basking in the attention and adoration of the villagers that had been withheld from her for so long, and was currently swept up in the mass of rowdy dancers that had taken over the open space between the three bonfires. Usopp had joined the dancers as well and was proving surprisingly capable. He'd clearly been unfamiliar with most of the local dances at the start, but had picked them up quickly and was now moving as expertly as someone who'd been born here. His moves were followed by a chorus of cheers and hoots of appreciation and he, like Nami, was soaking it up.

Every last person present was practically glowing with unrestrained happiness, and Luciana watched over it all from her perch on one of the benches that had been pulled around the fires with a smile that was so wide, it felt like it might crack her face in half. Every time the waves of laughter and song washed over her again, she felt a renewed sense of relief and joy. A mix of both theirs and her own. She felt ineffably proud that it was _her _crew that had done this, and brought such happiness into the hearts of so many people. (And especially into Nami’s.)

“Another drink?” came the offer from her left. Luciana was surprised to note that while she had been focusing so hard on letting the general jubilant atmosphere wash over her, that she hadn’t realized the person who’d approached her was someone she knew.

“Please,” she accepted with a lazy (and only a _little _intoxicated) smile. Nojiko smiled right back at her and swapped her empty mug for a full one. (Cocoyashi produced some _incredible _cider. Luciana made a mental note to bully Luffy into bringing a barrel or two with them when they left, because she'd definitely need it.)

“You look like you’re enjoying yourself,” Nojiko observed, settling herself down next to her and tapping their mugs together gently before taking a drink.

Luciana followed suit. “I am,” she admitted readily, sighing contentedly and relaxing back against the wooden planks of the bench. “I’m not much of a dancer, but it’s nice to just be around so many happy people.”

Scooting closer on the bench so their knees were touching, Nojiko’s expression grew earnest. “I’m glad,” she said. “You’ve probably heard it from just about everyone here by now, but I want to say it again anyways. Thank you, for helping us.”

“My brother’s the Captain, not me,” Luciana demurred with a light tilt of her head towards where Luffy sat not fifteen feet away on his own bench, a gigantic piece of meat on the bone clutched in each hand and about three more stuffed in his bulging mouth. “Those decisions are his. But for what it’s worth, you’re welcome. Nami is our nakama. We’d do just about anything for her if she asked us,” she admitted.

Nojiko smiled warmly. “I know that now,” she said, somewhat distant and nostalgic. “I’m glad she has you all. After everything… she deserves a crew like you. She never would have been happy staying here forever.”

“I’ve no doubt she’ll come back to visit one day,” Luciana offered, not even bothering with pretending that Nami might not choose to leave with them come morning. They both knew she would. Nami had an adventurous spirit, and even if she loved her home, she'd never feel happy here until she'd seen the world and fulfilled her dream. “She loves you, and she loves this place. She’ll want to show you her map of the world, after all.”

“I know,” Nojiko answered. Her voice was steady and sure. She sounded proud. “And I’ll be waiting for her here. You and that Captain of yours will keep her safe.”

“As safe as we can manage,” Luciana agreed. “The world’s a dangerous place, but something tells me that Nami’s up for the challenge. She’s going to worry me just as much as my little brother is, I can already tell,” she finished with a short laugh.

“Oh, she _definitely _will,” Nojiko confirmed with a chuckle before reaching out and tracing Luciana’s jawline with confident fingers. She laughed again when Luciana nearly jumped out of her skin at the contact. “Why don’t you worry about _me _for tonight though?” she asked in a much lower (and much more suggestive) tone.

For a brief moment, Luciana struggled to reboot her brain after it short-circuited. “Are you sure?” she finally got out, scrutinizing Nojiko carefully with her Observation Haki in search of any trace of discomfort or doubt. “Neither I nor any of my crew expect any sort of payment from you. Or anyone.” Consent was very important. Luciana didn’t think badly of any person who sold their bodies, but she personally wouldn’t be comfortable if this were the case here. This was her precious nakama’s sister, after all, and none of them had done what they did here with the expectation of any reward but Nami's peace of mind.

Thankfully, it seemed that Nojiko was simply genuinely interested. “I’m sure,” she promised, reaching down and gently gripping Luciana’s thigh just above the knee. “Come with me, just for tonight? Nami won’t be home for hours yet. She never could resist a party.”

Luciana thought for a moment, then nodded her assent. Normally, she preferred sleeping with friends or acquaintances she knew well enough to trust that they were safe if she felt like having a little after-hours fun. Despite this being only the second real conversation she’d had with the woman though, she decided to make an exception in this case. She liked Nojiko well enough, and didn’t doubt she’d be perfectly safe in her care.

“Oi, Luffy!” Luciana called over to her brother, who nearly choked as he struggled to swallow so he could answer.

“Eh?”

“I’m leaving for the night. I’ll come find you in the morning,” she told him, putting her mug –still half full—down on the bench and standing up, offering a hand to Nojiko who accepted it with a satisfied smirk.

“Okay, bye!” was Luffy’s only response before turning his attention back to his food, completely uninterested in her at the moment.

Luciana could only shake her head at him fondly as Nojiko took her hand and led her away from the party. The sounds of laughter and revelry followed them all the way to the little farm on the outskirts of the village, and Luciana idly wondered if any ships happened to be passing by close enough to catch the reflections of the sound off the water.

She hoped there were. Happiness was meant to be shared.


	13. Devil's Children

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short and fluffy early update. Have some ASL brothers! (Longer AN at the bottom.)

When the subject of parents finally came up between Luciana and her brothers, it was honestly sooner than she’d expected the conversation to happen. Out of the four of them, two had what Luciana would (generously) describe as _breathtaking _daddy issues, and it wasn’t as if she was without her own parent-related emotional problems either. It was… a sensitive subject, to say the least.

For all of them except Luffy that is, who so far as Luciana could tell couldn’t care less.

It all started when, three months after officially becoming siblings, Ace and Sabo decided that they needed a base closer to Grey Terminal, their main source of income. Luciana didn’t really mind the daily trek down the mountain from Dadan’s hut. It was a good workout if anything, but she couldn’t argue that it occasionally became tedious. Most likely especially so for her brothers, since they made the trip far more often than she did. She _did _like the idea of the treehouse though. (Trees felt like _home. _Soothing and achingly nostalgic all at once.) So she was happy to help them build it, and to accompany them when they spent the night there.

They’d surprised her with the flag on the day they’d finally finished with the construction. So similar to the classic ASL flag that she remembered, except for the fact that the skull and crossbones in the background was blindfolded. Luffy had pushed the crumpled cloth into her hands with his usual overeager enthusiasm, and Sabo had scolded him lightly while he spread it over the wooden planks of the floor and guided Luciana’s fingers over the dried paint with warm hands while Ace and Luffy lounged next to them.

“The letters are for us boys, see?” he explained as she traced each one slowly. He’d then dragged her hands over the skull and crossbones. “And the blindfold over the skull, that’s you. Because having two L’s or two A’s in ASL would be stupid.”

And damn it if she hadn’t been choked up with the effort they’d gone to in order to include her. “I love it,” she said, splaying her fingers out across the fabric to feel it all again and grinning like a lunatic. “With all of us on it, it’s almost like a family crest!”

“Yeah!” Luffy agreed, then paused, a (rare) thoughtful frown inscribing itself on his little face. “Say, Ana…” he began. “Before us, what was your family like?”

From where they too were kneeling on the wooden floor of their new home, the flag spread out between them, Ace and Sabo stiffened and shot glares at their littlest brother. Before this moment, the subject of their families from Before had been taboo by mutual silent agreement. Both Ace and Sabo thought they had something shameful to hide, after all; but Luciana didn’t really mind the innocent question even as her posture slumped slightly, the wind taken out of her figurative sails.

“I…” she said falteringly, not quite sure how to answer. “I don’t have parents, but I had a big family,” she finally decided on. All three boys paid rapt attention to her words. She’d never spoken of her time before Dawn Island with them. “I was left as a baby with some monks on an island in the West Blue, so even if I’m technically an orphan, I had almost a hundred Brothers and Sisters in the order.”

_That _got more of a reaction.

“You’re a monk?” Ace and Sabo.

“You crossed the Grand Line?” That was Luffy. (And didn’t it just figure that of all the lessons that she’d tried to pound unsuccessfully into his rubber head, that the one fact he’d retained regarding geography was that to cross between the Blues, one needed to cross either the Red or Grand Lines?)

“I _used _to be a monk,” she answered in order, her lips quirking into an indulgently fond smile that was reserved for these three boys alone. “But I was too young when I left the island for me to have been properly initiated as an adult member. And yes, Luffy, when Gramps brought me here on his ship, we crossed through the Grand Line. I don’t remember much of it though, so if you want proper stories, you’ll have to ask him.”

As one, her three brothers wrinkled their noses and shook their heads, and… yeah, Luciana didn’t blame them. Asking Garp for things –or just talking to the man in general, really—usually ended up with the conversation veering off in unexpected directions and inevitably towards some sort of violence. (Because all four of them were opinionated little shits and Garp was too emotionally constipated to express himself without his Fist of Love.)

“It was nice of Gramps to bring Ace his sister all the way from the West Blue,” Luffy decided.

The three of them looked at him askance. “Luffy…” Ace started slowly. “You _do _realize that none of us are actually related, right? Ana-chan wasn’t our sister until we drank the sake.”

Luffy blinked. “But she was already your big sister before I got here, wasn’t she?”

“I’m afraid there wasn’t anything official between us then, aside from the fact that Gramps called me his granddaughter and asked me to look after Ace-kun,” Luciana admitted. “As far as I know, I’m not a blood relative to any of you, for all that Gramps has claimed me.”

“Huh,” came the simple response. “Well, do you miss them? Your family?”

Luciana swallowed, her throat suddenly feeling very dry. She ran her hands over the flag again, the dried paint rough against her fingertips. “Yes,” she admitted quietly after a poignant pause. She missed the crechemaster, Sister Laika, and her gruff affection. She missed Brother Melody, the closest of the other children to her age, who she attended nearly every lesson with for as long as she could remember. She missed Lidia and Pol, who’d left the island long before she had but who she still remembered fondly. She missed Brother Kino, the wrinkled old zoan librarian, and Sisters Rya and Saku, who had only been six years old when she’d left but had begged her for bedtimes stories every night before they went to bed. She missed Rondia’s port town, and the fishwives at the market, and the way that the forest had always smelled of fresh pine and sea salt and had been mercifully free of wolves, alligators, bears, and Tiger Lords. She missed long days spent reading, and her lessons from the other monks, and… and…

Rondia was… a paradise, in its own way. Simple and peaceful and familiar and _hers _in a way that Dawn Island never was and never could be. Luciana didn’t know if she’d ever see it again. (Didn’t feel brave enough to _want _to, because she couldn’t bear it if she _wanted _and could never have.)

“Will you go back, when you set sail?” Ace asked. He very deliberately wasn’t looking at her and was instead plucking insistently at a loose thread on his shorts.

“No,” Luciana replied, her voice now more confident even as she deflated slightly at the declaration. “I don’t know if I ever will. There’s… so much I want to do that I could never accomplish back home, and I have someone I need to find. She… if I have a real home, it’s with her, and she’ll be out at sea. Just like you three will be.”

All three of her brothers grinned at her. Like always, the mere mention of their dream for their futures as fearsome pirates made them nearly giddy.

“Do you wish you’d met your parents?” Sabo questioned curiously after a moment. His words held a note of insecurity though, and Luciana couldn’t help but gentle her expression upon hearing it.

“Not really,” she admitted. She’d never missed them. She already _had _parents once after all –parents who, even if they’d been just as flawed and human as anyone else, had at least loved her the best they knew how in the too-short time they’d had together—and wasn’t interested in chasing down the people who had chosen to give her away as an infant. Luciana wasn’t going to beg them to love her. There were people who _already _loved her in this world, after all, and she loved them back wholeheartedly. “They… didn’t want me, but they cared enough to leave me somewhere where they knew I’d have a good life. The least I could do in return is to respect their wishes to not be a part of their families, and I don’t need them anyways. I have the three of you.” She dragged the flag from the floor and clutched it tightly to her chest. “Family is something you make.”

Sabo swallowed, and wrung his hands in his lap in an atypical display of insecurity. “My parents… they’re not dead,” he choked out. Ace’s gaze on him turned sharp, and even Luffy appeared to be paying more attention now. “I… I left. They were bad people. The worst. They used their money as an excuse to hurt other people, and they didn’t love me, and they… they…” He couldn’t finish. He just sat there, shoulders shaking in the silence.

“You’re ours,” Ace finally said firmly. “Where we came from doesn’t matter. We’re family now.”

“That goes for you too, Ace-kun,” Luciana murmured, splaying a comforting hand out on Sabo’s back as his breath hitched in a little sob. “I’ve heard Dadan-san and the others talking, same as you. But for all the awful things they say, you’re no son of the devil. Your father was a flesh and blood man, just like Sabo’s, and just like mine. You’re no better or worse than we are.”

Seemingly unable to find the words to respond, Ace just scooted across the floor so he could press himself into Luciana’s other side, and she wrapped an arm around his shoulders without hesitation.

“What about mine?” Luffy piped up, tilting his head so far to the side that his too-big straw hat slipped off and dangled from the cord around his neck.

Almost hysterically, Sabo let out a little giggle. “No way Luffy’s father is human, he’s too weird,” he claimed.

“Oi!” Luffy protested, but his positively indignant expression only made Luciana and Ace start laughing as well.

“I heard his father was a dragon,” Luciana teased. (And she had. Dadan was all right, so far as mountain bandits went. She wasn’t terribly subtle though.)

Luffy’s eyes lit up at the idea. “Really? _Sugoi!” _he gasped. “Can I breathe fire?”

“’Course not, dummy,” Ace responded. “She’s joking. Though that would be _way _cooler than your lame rubber powers.”

Before Luffy could work himself up into a full-blown argument with Ace (which could last for _hours _between the two of them if not defused, the stubborn things) Luciana intervened by grabbing Luffy’s hand out of the air and reeling him into her, the length of his stretched arm spooling at her side as she pulled him closer, hand over hand, despite his protests. She was much bigger and stronger than he was, so it wasn’t long before she’d gathered the rest of him into her arms and proceeded to loudly press a sloppy kiss to his cheek. “Cuddle puddle!” she squealed once she’d pulled away with a smack. Luffy immediately tried to wipe away her (admittedly slobbery) kiss, but she just held him tighter so he couldn’t move.

Both Ace and Sabo grinned evilly and jumped into the fray, which ended up as more of a free-for-all wrestling match than a cuddle. Still, at the end of it, all four of them ended up piled on top of each other in something close enough to a hug that Luciana was satisfied, at least. The others must have been as well, since none of them made any effort to disentangle themselves despite the fact that Sabo had wound up on the bottom and was probably suffocating a little bit beneath their weight.

Content, Luciana grabbed the corner of their new flag –which had ended up wedged beneath her butt and Ace’s leg—and worked it free before throwing it over the top of them like a blanket. Technically, they’d set up some sleeping areas in the treehouse, but this would do just as well. (Perhaps even better.)

“Sabo, your feet stink,” Luffy complained sleepily from where he was squashed face-first into his blonde brother’s legs.

Cursing a blue streak quite unbecoming of a child his age (Luciana had _definitely _not been the one responsible for teaching him _those _words, though she could appreciate his creativity in using them.) Sabo flipped Luffy off his legs and onto Luciana’s stomach before wiggling around a little to find a more comfortable position. This resulted in Ace getting elbowed by at least two of them, which set _him _off; but thankfully, her three high-spirited brothers were too tired to fight properly and soon ran out of steam, settling down again.

“Out of all the people in the world, we chose each other,” she told them, fondly pushing the hair out of Luffy and Sabo’s flushed faces. (Ace was spared only by virtue of lying at such an angle that his hair was out of her reach.) “That means more than blood family ever could, and no one can take that away from us.”

“En,” Luffy sighed happily, nuzzling into Ace’s shoulder. “You’re all mine.”

“So selfish,” Sabo teased him. But his hand grabbed onto Luciana’s and squeezed it tightly in thanks before moving to pull the corner of the flag higher up over their littlest brother’s shoulders.

Ace sighed. “So… you don’t think it was a bad thing, that I was born?” he asked wistfully. Almost too quietly to make out, despite their proximity.

Luciana could’ve strangled Garp with her bare hands. That wasn’t something a child should ever have to question.

“No one ever asks to be born,” she told him gently. “You exist. You have a right to exist. Any meaning to your life that you want to find beyond that… that’s for you to find. But for now, _our _lives are better with you in it.”

“Yeah,” Sabo hummed, his little nose scrunched in a haughty expression that Luciana realized that he’d probably created for the sole purpose of mocking his birth family. “Don’t be stupid.”

On top of them, Luffy let out a particularly loud snore.

Helplessly, Ace began to laugh despite the hand he clamped over his own mouth to try and smother the sound. The paroxysms jostled the whole pile, but he didn’t stop even when Sabo whined and Luciana took a few halfhearted swipes at him. “I’ll do it,” he finally managed once he calmed down. “I’ll have the _greatest _adventure; and when I die, I’ll leave the world a better place than it was when I got here.”

“’Course you will, dummy,” Sabo said. Despite the harshness of the words, there was a smile in his voice. He sounded proud. “We all will.”

Luciana was proud too, despite how her chest seized at their casual talk of dying. (She, of all people, knew that death was inevitable.) She didn't doubt Ace's words. The four of them were forces nature, after all, and they were going to change the world. But for now, it was enough that she let herself relax back into the warm forms of her brothers and drift off to sleep. The world would wait. This time, now, was precious, and she didn't want to waste a single moment of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there were apparently some concerns over the whole Nojiko thing last chapter, and I just wanted to address them quickly. The pairing for this story is absolutely Lucy/Robin. Lucy's night with Nojiko was just the one time, and was more a convenient character development point than anything. You probably won't see it mentioned again outside of some light banter with Nami.
> 
> Guys, please keep in mind that the last time Lucy and Robin saw each other, they were 11 and 14 respectively. WAY too young for any romantic feelings for each other. And by the time Lucy met Nojiko, it's been 14 years since that time. She's 25 years old and not in any committed relationships, so I wanted a way to show that she's an adult who's had her own adult experiences at this point. It's something that sets her aside from the rest of the crew at this point, who are all much younger than her. This will be the last time chronologically that she sleeps with anyone who's not Robin, but don't be shocked if there are mentions of her being with other people earlier in the timeline. Lucy had seven years to spend alone in the East Blue between leaving Dawn Island and joining Luffy's crew, after all. That's a long time.
> 
> Still, none of you need to be afraid of this becoming a story more focused on sex or her building some sort of harem or anything? Which apparently was a concern for some people? The only romantic or sexual relationship that I'm every going to spend any significant time on outside of a throwaway mention for Lucy is her relationship with Robin. So I hope that helps if anyone else was worried.


	14. An Exit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you so much for the wonderful feedback! It inspires me a lot. Now, let's finally get started on leaving the East Blue, yeah?

When the newly formed Straw Hat Pirates arrived at Loguetown, it was with a total price of 40,000,000 beri on their heads. 30,000,000 for Straw Hat Luffy, and 10,000,000 for Black Sight Ana, his first mate. Luciana hadn’t expected to receive her own bounty so soon; but in hindsight, catching a bullet in her bare hand in front of a group of Marines had probably tipped them off to the fact that she could become a rather large problem for them if she were allowed to wreak havoc with Luffy unchecked. Not to mention the ruthless reputation she’d spent years building as a bounty hunter. Despite the new dangers this presented to them as a group though, Luciana was actually a little proud of herself. Her little brother had excitedly relayed that she looked _awesome _on her bounty poster, having been captured mid-swing with her quarterstaff wearing a fierce expression; and for a lowly first mate of an East Blue rookie captain, the bounty itself wasn’t unimpressive. She hoped that Ace would see the posters and be proud of them too, even if his own accomplishments far outstripped their own at this point. (And she hoped that Garp would see them as well, and die mad about it.)

Well, she didn’t think she _actually _wanted Garp to die. She owed him that much at least; and for all his faults, he’d loved her the only way he knew how (i.e. regularly beating the shit out of her) from the moment he’d decided she was family. The psychotic old man meant well, but at the bare minimum, Luciana hoped that the news about his grandson and “granddaughter” setting off to become pirates together would ruin his week.

Dadan and Makino would be proud of them, at the very least. Luciana could always count on that.

In all honestly, she found herself quite excited to see Loguetown. Not for its historical value –though that wasn’t _un_interesting—but because _this _was their last real stop before entering the Grand Line, and the events they set in motion here would ripple far into their futures. As they docked, she wasn’t disappointed by the scale of the city, nor its excitable atmosphere. With such an oppressive Marine presence now, Loguetown was lesser than it used to be, but Luciana could tell that the city hadn’t forgotten its wild roots.

“Alright, I’ll go get equipment for our adventure!” Usopp declared eagerly, looking at everything around him with wide and childish eyes.

“Looks like I can get some good ingredients here,” Sanji added, and then grinned. “Good women too!”

Zoro made a thoughtful noise. “I’ve got something I want to buy too.”

Nami pounced on the opportunity. Ever since she’d come with them after Arlong’s defeat with pockets full of stolen wallets, she’d been lighter. Happier. One thing that hadn’t changed about her was her fixation on money though, and Luciana doubted that this was something that would ever go away entirely. Nami had spent too long suffering to try and earn her village’s freedom to lose that ingrained fear of poverty lightly, even amongst her own crewmates. Luciana didn’t try to stop her attempts to pull Zoro into her debt. Even as Luffy took off on his own unsupervised adventure without so much as a by-your-leave, she could only shake her head fondly at the lot of them.

They were all dysfunctional children; but they were _her _dysfunctional children now, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. (And gods above and below, was this this how Whitebeard felt _all the time_? Luciana was honestly surprised that the old man hadn’t died from worry yet, given how large his crew was.)

“We’ll need some special equipment if we want to get anywhere on the Grand Line,” she mused aloud, interrupting her own thoughts forcefully and shaking her head when Nami gave her the doe-eyes and asked if she wanted to go shopping with her. (Luciana did not. She loved Nami to bits, but knew herself well enough to be aware that she didn’t have enough patience to sit through having to be the judge for Nami’s fashion choices when she was _blind_. Not without killing someone.) “I’ll meet back up with you all later. Don’t get into too much trouble though,” she warned. “There are Marines here. If I have to come and save you, you won’t like how I do it.”

With that, Luciana set off on her way, ignoring how Nami and Usopp rolled their eyes at her favorite ubiquitous threat. They’d known her long enough by now to understand that she’d absolutely follow through and make their lives distinctly unpleasant if they disobeyed, and it should be enough motivation to keep them in line. She hoped.

Shopping in Loguetown was a surprisingly pleasant experience. Especially since Luciana still had a bit of money left over of her own that she’d managed to hide before Nami could get her claws into it –which was more difficult to accomplish than it sounded. They shared a room after all, and now that Nami felt completely comfortable around her in the wake of everything that had happened on the Conomi Islands, Luciana found that the girl didn’t really have a good sense of boundaries. Normally, Luciana wouldn’t mind. It’s not like she had a great grasp on boundaries either, when she could literally see and often hear everyone on the boat _all the time _regardless of any amount of walls or closed doors that would normally ensure privacy. (She knew far more about her nakama and their personal habits than she assumed most would be comfortable with if they were aware of the extent of her senses, but Luciana did her best to keep her observations to herself. It wasn’t like she hadn’t expected it when she’d decided to board a ship crammed full of teenagers.) And it’s not as if she were body shy herself either. Half the time, she wandered around the ship in nothing but a swimsuit anyways, and she had indulged in some topless sunbathing on the rear deck with her brother more than once. Still, it _was _a pain when she wanted to hide her money from Nami, and Nami felt no compunctions about rifling through her belongings at all if she decided she wanted to borrow something of Luciana’s.

She’d managed, but Luciana had the sneaking suspicion that this was due more to how intimidating Nami found her rather to any particular success at hiding the money on her part. (Nami had often watched Luciana and Zoro spar on the deck of the Merry in the early days of their voyage, and even then, Luciana had pulled Nami into a spar as well more than once to test her skill with her bo staff. Now, in the wake of Arlong’s defeat, Luciana had taken it upon herself to subject both Nami and Usopp to her own brand of intensive specialized training. The both of them had walked away from each encounter black and blue, unused to Luciana’s rough style of “teaching”.) Still, Luciana would take good fortune where she could find it. Her funds were limited and probably wouldn’t even last past Loguetown, but she had been managing her own money for years now and wasn’t yet accustomed to sharing a ship’s budget with a crew and shrewd treasurer.

She took her time shopping, unhurried as she collected her supplies. (“Are you _sure _you only want items in black and grey, miss? Jewel tones could do wonders for your complexion and I have the best selection in Loguetown.” “Onee-san, it’s not as if I can match colors, now is it? Just greys and blacks, please.”) Because she doubted anyone else but Nami would think to do so, Luciana stocked up on small essentials like soap –rosemary scented, for nostalgia’s sake— deodorant, detergent, zinc powder, and a bigger sewing kit, as well as a few small jars of lip balm and bath and massage oils. The Grand Line, she knew, had wildly unpredictable and drastic changes in climates; and Luciana didn’t want anyone getting sunburns, cracked lips or skin, or to smell bad. Especially considering that they all kept such close quarters even on the Merry. She even went out of her way to gather a few basic medicines that she felt familiar enough with to administer if necessary until they brought Chopper on board. Though her self-assigned shopping list wasn’t complete until she finally got her hands on a log pose as well, since she well aware of the item’s simultaneous fragility and incredible importance. It couldn’t hurt to have an extra on hand.

It took a while to find one though, and by the time that Luciana felt she’d gathered everything she needed, _change _was in the air. High above her head, the sky began to rumble discontentedly, and the wind picked up all around her. Citizens nervously hurried through their business so they could return home, sensing it on some level as well. That the world felt restless.

Tucking her purchases away in the bag she’d brought from the ship and slung across her back for just this purpose, Luciana clicked her tongue disapprovingly and began making her way towards where she knew her troublesome little brother would soon be kicking up a fuss. He had the devil’s own luck and most likely wouldn’t need her to save him, but she couldn’t allow him to brush so closely with death without her by his side regardless.

It was kind of fun, landing a solid blow with her quarterstaff directly to the center of Smoker’s chest and sending him flying back into a wall. She’d walked leisurely, and arrived late to the fight with Alvida and Buggy. (Buggy, despite the fact that he _should _have been languishing in Impel Down at this point thanks to Luciana turning him in for his bounty, had apparently been broken free of the Orange Town Navy holding cells by Alvida. Luciana was almost embarrassed for the Marines of the East Blue at this point.) She’d stepped into the square only just in time to witness lightning striking from above and obliterating everything on the execution platform except for Luffy himself. The lightning was so bright and brilliant, that even through her blindfold and only half-functioning eye, the forked afterimage burned itself mercilessly onto her retina. And Luciana could _feel _it in the air, which reeked of ash and ozone. This moment felt like fate and faith and _power, _and it left her absolutely breathless.

_“I’m the man who’s going to become the Pirate King!”_

Luffy was… Luffy. But in moments like these, Luciana could only marvel at his capacity for sheer faith that was always somehow proven worthwhile.

Of course, the Navy didn’t have time for little things like destiny, and Smoker had sent in his Marines to break up the moment almost immediately. Luciana hadn’t bothered with the small fry, and had followed the progress of her nakama instead, using a few steps of Moonwalk to take herself out of their direct path and leaping from rooftop to rooftop as she followed them. She didn’t stop even when their path was blocked by a fuming woman that Luciana assumed to be Tashigi, since she seemed to have a grudge against Zoro specifically and began to duel him there and then. (And only a _true _swordsman would have that _particular _sense of dramatics.) Luciana simply carried on ahead towards the docks until she reached a rooftop that she deemed prime ambush material and squatted in place to wait for her prey.

It was almost too amusing for words that Smoker apparently thought the same thing once he arrived, and stood just below her as he waited for her Captain and crewmates to fall into his trap just the same as he had unknowingly already fallen into hers.

Luciana waited. Luffy and Sanji arrived, and Sanji went on ahead to help Usopp and Nami, and _still _Luciana waited.

“I’ll beat you and enter the Grand Line,” Luffy declared, his eyes clear and bright. “I’m the man who’ll be King of the Pirates!”

Smoker stopped waiting. His arms dissolved into smoke as he unleashed his signature White Out attack, encircling Luffy with a restraining power that could neither be slipped out of nor punched away.

Once she deemed that Luffy had gotten a good idea of what fighting a logia-user was like after struggling futilely for a few minutes to somehow fight the man (She _really _hoped that this would teach him to stop trying to punch logia-users until he managed Armament Haki properly. It wouldn't well.) Luciana stopped waiting too. She leaped at the Marine Captain from above. He hadn’t seen her coming, and didn’t have any time to try and defend himself against her blow. She almost felt bad about the way he grunted in pain as he took the full brunt of the sea prism in her quarterstaff and landed in such a violent picture of shattered stone. He was just so _serious _about it all! Earnest in a way that she couldn’t help but admire, even if she herself could never stomach dedicating herself to such a corrupt cause as he did. But Captain Smoker was a man who genuinely tried to do some good within the system that existed, so Luciana could never truly hate him. Not really.

So instead of turning to fight him properly, Luciana just smiled widely in his direction and gave him a jaunty salute as she slung her quarterstaff back across her back and helped her brother to his feet with her free hand. “Sorry sir, but we have an appointment on the Grand Line to keep,” she chirped. “Let’s play again later!” With that, she grabbed Luffy by the back of his vest and took off running in the direction of the Merry, dragging him along like an unruly puppy as he laughed excitedly in her wake. The little hyena.

Smoker gave chase, of course. Luciana honestly expected nothing less of him. But she wasn’t shy about using a short controlled burst of Conquerer’s Haki to make him stumble in his tracks just enough that they slipped through his fingers. And once Monkey D. Dragon arrived on the scene… Well…

Luciana had never felt _anyone _who was stronger than Garp before. It was fitting, then, Garp’s son was the first to manage it. He’d leaped onto the scene and pinned Smoker just as they pelted onto the docks, and Luciana had nearly tripped as she got a good sense of him up close. (Dragon felt both scarily alike to and yet completely different from Luffy. His spirit felt vast and burned as brightly as an ancient star, but sang of old pain and the weariness of a man who’d shouldered heavy burdens. The mix between the familiar Monkey D. brand of unrivalled confidence and _will _was tempered by a discordant melody of thoughtfulness and patience born of pain. It wasn’t an _unpleasant _combination, per say, just… strange.) She knew that Luffy had seen the cloaked man by the way he stiffened in her hands, but there wasn’t any time to waste regardless of their shared surprise at the appearance of an unknown and unexpected ally. The intervention bought them enough time to escape without a fight, and Luciana wouldn’t waste that opportunity.

_“The world is waiting for our answer.”_

The gale-force winds that suddenly swept over Loguetown were anything but natural (thank you, Dragon) but they served their purpose as they swept them all –enemies and allies alike—quite literally off their feet. The Marine forces were now in complete disarray, and Luciana and Luffy had landed in a heap with Sanji, Zoro, and Usopp in full view of the Going Merry. One gum-gum rocket later (Luciana would _never _get used to the indignity of that particular method of travel, no matter how many times Luffy manhandled her.) and they all landed on the Merry’s deck in yet another groaning heap.

“If you _ever _get that close to dying again, I’ll kill you myself,” Luciana snapped at her brother, pounding him on the head with a Haki-infused fist in a move that she would deny until her dying day was something that she referred to as the Fist of Love in the privacy of her own mind. Luffy clutched at his head and whined at the pain, ignoring Sanji’s reprimands about him being rubber. He got over it with unsurprising swiftness though, and soon reached out with his stretchy arms and squished Luciana into a suffocating thank-you hug for saving him from Smoker. Squawking indignantly at the treatment, she halfheartedly squirmed to try and get away. (Even though she didn’t _really _want to get away, now probably wasn’t the best time for a cuddle.) Luffy held on tightly though, until Zoro pulled him off of her and demanded that Luffy help him with the sails.

Loguetown vanished into the storm behind them far more quickly than it would ever disappear from Luciana’s mind. But for the moment, she had more important things to worry about. The deck of the ship rolled violently beneath her feet with each towering wave, and she was soaked through with the pelting rain, but they were _so close _to the Grand Line now. So close to entering the place that would shape their lives for years to come, for better or for worse. This wasn’t the moment for memories. This was the moment for looking to the future. The air still tasted like _destiny _and she could feel it with every freezing drop of rain that plastered her curls close to her head, and in every gust of wind that teased at her clothes.

The voyage to Raftel would be a long and painful one.

Luciana could hardly wait.

She wasn’t the only one. Despite the storm, they would press on. Though not without taking the time to savor this moment.

“In order to find the All-Blue!” Sanji boldly exclaimed, landing a foot on the barrel that Zoro had dragged onto the center of the deck.

Luffy’s sandaled foot slammed down next to Sanji’s. “In order to become the King of the Pirates!”

“In order to become a master swordsman!”

“In order to draw a map of the world!”

“In order to become a brave warrior of the sea!”

Luciana smiled, and put her own foot down. The last to do so. “In order to change the world!” she cried out, conviction swelling beneath her ribcage.

Because this… _this _was what she had been reborn for. The answer to the question that Grandma Izumi had asked her so long ago. Luciana was going to _be _the change that she wanted to see in the world. Just like her sworn Captain would be. He was so young now. Nearly untested. But Luciana was now more familiar with the unconquerable will that burned inside Luffy than she was with herself, and she knew that if she could only protect his rising star… that things would get better. That the world was an objectively _better _place with her brothers in it.

Bad things happened all the time, after all, and mostly to good people. But one day, the Straw Hat Pirates would have the power to stop them. She swore it, on her very bones. And she would be there to protect them until they were ready.

Luffy beamed at them all. “We’re going… to the Grand Line!”


	15. The Stowaway

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a bit on Luciana's solo adventures in the East Blue, and the story of how she got her weapons! (Don't freak out y'all, but she does sleep with someone in this chapter. You will literally never see him mentioned again after this.)

From the very beginning, Luciana had vowed to herself that she would never eat a devil fruit. Even when she’d intended to never leave Rondia for the ocean, she’d deemed the risks too high compared to the possible rewards in the unlikely scenario that she’d ever have the opportunity to make that choice. This _was _an ocean world, after all.

The moment that she finally acknowledged to herself that Robin was her most important person however, is when Luciana _knew _she never could. (The water was the only thing that Robin would never be able to rescue herself from. It would be stupid of her to purposefully share that same weakness.) She didn’t resent the limitation. In this world, you didn’t have to have devil fruit powers to become strong enough to work your way to the top, and Luciana wouldn’t miss them. She’d hardly have the time to train any extra powers of hers properly, she reasoned, with everything else she planned to learn anyways.

This was why when Grandma Izumi finally kicked Luciana out of the Listers after three years of constantly wiping the floor with her, and essentially told her to go get a job (since she was now more than capable of advancing her training on her own, according to her, though she was still expected to visit) that Luciana’s first choice of career was to go into bounty hunting. She would receive the benefits of learning by taking down a variety of decently dangerous opponents, yes; but more importantly, bounty hunters could earn _money._

Sea prism couldn’t be purchased by just _anyone, _after all, and prices were (literally) criminally steep on the black market. Especially here, in the sleepy East Blue.

The World Government was many things –most of which Luciana disliked, with a burning distain that she reserved for things like the Celestial Dragons, men who told her to smile, and pirates who stole from already poor and oppressed innocents—but for the most part they weren’t entirely stupid. They had a firm stranglehold on the market for sea prism, which served them well in three different ways. Firstly so that only their ships were the ones with bottoms lined with the substance, ensuring their naval superiority. Secondly, so that not just _any _random person could use it to take down some of their more powerful and skilled officers. And thirdly, so that not just any random person could defend themselves from the average devil fruit user. Not only did this increase the destructive potential of their own fruit-using officers, but it gave the Marines somewhat of a monopoly on taking down criminals. If the average person couldn’t fight off attacking devil fruit users, it was easy for the World Government to step in and play hero when they and they alone had access to mass amounts of sea prism.

Luciana wanted sea prism. She wanted it _badly. _With it, she could end half of her coming fights before they even started! It was far too valuable a resource to simply ignore or dismiss the possibilities of.

Fortunately, the legality of the matter didn’t mean much to her. With enough beri, you could get your hands on just about anything; and failing that, Luciana didn’t feel at all squeamish about robbing the Marines herself if it came down to it.

In the end, she’d needed a bit of both. After two years of hunting down petty criminals (who _all _thought of themselves as big shots now that they had an official bounty on their idiotic heads) and either capturing or killing them, depending on how badly they’d pissed her off, she’d collected a sum total of 29,000,000 beri. Luciana was tired of waiting at this point, and so put out word with a few contacts of hers that she was looking to purchase some sea prism. They’d come through for her within the week, but they hadn’t been able to get as much as she’d wanted for the funds she had available.

When she’d been just a scrawny child acolyte at the monastery, Luciana had been trained with escrima sticks. Very few of the monks of Rondia were trained in the use of bladed weapons, since they were considered both luxury items and generally lethal unless they were wielded by a master. This directly contradicted the monks’ fierce doctrines of dāna (generosity) and śīla (virtue), so most chose to wield either a staff weapon or escrima if they even used weapons at all. At the time, Luciana had been much too small to wield a staff weapon properly, and so had initially been instructed in the use of escrima sticks. Now, as an adult, she preferred the quarterstaff. It gave her a longer reach and more power behind her blows than her escrima, but it wasn’t as unwieldy as a bo staff.

Occasionally though, her escrima still came in very handy. They were certainly more subtle to walk around with than their larger counterpart, and so Luciana had never given up the practice of carrying a set with her. (Though she firmly believed it was good practice to carry multiple weapons with you at all times regardless.) This was why, with her limited supply of sea prism, that the first weapons she had commissioned with it were a new set of escrima.

With her ever-growing proficiency with Armament Haki, pretty much anything could become a deadly weapon in her hands, so Luciana hadn’t until this point been overly concerned with the quality of the weapons she wielded. While poisons needed to be handled with knowledge, skill, and care, one quarterstaff was generally just as good as another when she often reinforced it anyways. She wasn’t picky, and had therefore never had occasion to commission something for herself until she found herself as the proud owner of a handful of innocuous-seeming teal pebbles that would (in theory) allow her to move forward with the reputation she wanted to create for herself.

Black Sight was a name that –while not a household one by any means—was at this point not unknown to the bounty hunting community of the East Blue. Nor was it unknown to the local World Government officials that signed off on the payment of her collected bounties as the paperwork crossed their desk, apparently, since her brothers had told her that their Gramps had even mentioned her exploits during his last visit. (She’d been careful to avoid the man, and hadn’t seen him since she was turned eighteen despite knowing that he was often in the area to visit her brothers. Though apparently, he approved of what he’d heard of her career since then, even if he was disappointed that she hadn’t joined the Marines.) This was all simply a prelude to the day when she’d join Luffy’s crew and become a pirate so she’d have a way to enter the Grand Line and find Robin safely, of course, but Luciana felt that it was still important.

She’d battled with exactly one opponent in her life that hadn’t underestimated her, and she’d lost both Robin and her eyes in that fight.

She greatly preferred it when people looked at her and saw someone weak. _That _was her opportunity to strike.

Which brought her back to the sea prism. Incredibly useful, and _incredibly _specialized. It was also incredibly well known, and most people could recognize it on sight even if they’d never seen it in person before. Between fruit-users and those without, Luciana often found that it was the people who’d never tasted a devil fruit that were often the more challenging opponents to bring down. Not because devil fruit powers couldn’t be an incredible asset in a fight –because more often than not, they were—but because in a world where people sometimes had superpowers given to them through eating a magical food item, most people drastically underestimated those who did not. (Which was foolish, in her opinion. If you had to work twice as hard to obtain power, it only made sense that you were twice as skilled once you had it.) It stood to reason then, that the average person who saw her take down a devil fruit user with a weapon embedded with sea prism would assume that it was the famous mineral that had given her the power to do so, and not her own virtue.

She was just one woman, after all, and a blind one at that. Who would assume that someone like her would have the power to take down such opponents on her own bare-handed, especially if she was known for relying on sea prism weapons to help her?

In Luciana’s mind, it was a win-win. She could take advantage of the sea prism’s properties, and at the same time disguise her true skill from future enemies that would assume her to be helpless the moment they took her weapons away from her. Little did they know that her true strength didn’t reside in her body, but in her spirit. If all went well, by the time they realized the truth, it would be too late.

Luciana had pulled the same stunt with her poisons, after all, and it had worked beautifully. For all that she was a ‘known’ killer with poisons in the beginning, most of her targets had therefore assumed that she didn’t know how to fight for herself.

They’d been wrong.

Stealing enough sea prism stone to properly embellish a quarterstaff was a much different experience than asking Elliot to get it for her from the black market and having it placed in her waiting hands a week later with a wink. The entire incident gave her a whole new understanding of the concept and necessity of a convenience charge, and just how lucky she’d been to get as much sea prism as she did for where she was and the price she’d paid. (But that was Elliot for you. He was a good guy, and an acquaintance she genuinely enjoyed spending time with. She’d no doubt that her good fortune was a deliberate effort on his part.)

There were quite a few ways she’d considered getting her hands on some sea prism for herself, most of which she’d had to reluctantly dismiss as impractical. She’d first thought that she could steal a few of the nets the Marines often used to subdue devil fruit users. They shot them all over the place anyways, so she thought that if she was quick about it, they wouldn’t get all up in arms if one or four of them went missing during a scuffle. Unfortunately for her, the East Blue wasn’t exactly known for its excess of devil fruit users. It was extremely uncommon for the average Marine to be equipped with sea prism here, and Luciana didn’t fancy trying her luck with a Vice-Admiral’s crew just yet.

She’d then thought to retrieve some from a Marine ship that’d been somehow wrecked, destroyed, or decommissioned. (Stealing some from when the ship was being built wasn’t an option. While Water 7 wasn’t the _only _place that their ships were made, it was true for the majority, and the Marines didn’t happen to have a shipyard that handled more than repairs anywhere in the East Blue.) But as it turned out, on the rare occasion that Marine ships _were _destroyed here, the parts lined with sea prism sank far quicker than the parts made of normal wood did. Unless the ship was wrecked just offshore –in which case the Marines almost always ran their own heavily-guarded salvage efforts as soon as possible—it would have been impossible for her to go after the sunken wreckage with the time and equipment she had available, especially with how hard it was to predict when and where a wreck would happen in the first place. Decommissioned ships were a dead end as well, since they were sailed back to the shipyards where they were made so that the very sea prism that Luciana was after could be repurposed for new ships.

And Luciana wasn’t about to go attacking high-ranking officers for their own sea prism weapons, so this left her with only one logical option. She had to take sea prism from a ship that was _still sailing._

“You’re insane,” Kourin informed her flatly when she shared her vague formulation of a plan with him as they lay side by side in his bed. He was Elliot’s younger brother, and a skilled craftsman. It was him that she’d commissioned to create her new escrima sticks, and he’d done so with an excited smile and the family-and-friends discount. She’d been so pleased with how they’d turned out –beautiful stained oak with sturdy construction and coated with fragrant lacquer over the top of the glowing blue studs of sea prism—that when he’d timidly asked if she’d allow him to take her to dinner, she’d agreed without hesitation and ended up spending the night with him. Kourin, like Elliot, was a good man, and had gone out of his way to try to be a good lover to her that evening and had treated her with every courtesy.

The poor man hadn’t really been prepared for Luciana’s version of pillow talk though.

“It’s only insane if it doesn’t work,” she’d laughed, rolling herself on top of him and pinning his wrists above his head with one hand while trailing down his toned stomach with the other. “Don’t you believe I can do it?”

Beneath her, Kourin’s heartrate had spiked as he looked up at her with something between incredulity, awe, and attraction. “You’ll get caught for sure,” he gasped. “Next time I see your face, it’ll be on a wanted poster.”

“What will you give me if I prove you wrong?” she asked, stilling her movements and tilting her head coyly.

Kourin laughed. “If you can steal the sea prism without getting caught and come back, I’ll make you that quarterstaff you wanted for free.”

Luciana considered this. “Do I also get another _dinner _out of it?” she bargained, rolling her hips against his.

She absolutely didn’t mean the food. Her lifestyle was almost entirely solitary and nomadic, and attractive short-term partners like Kourin –kind enough to be unlikely to try to kill her, and not a _complete _moron when it came to making conversation—were worth keeping available to her, even if she never ended up seeing them again. They were certainly harder to find than weapons craftsmen. It would be nice to know she’d be welcomed here if she came back, considering that she was somewhat hedonistic in nature and wasn’t in the habit of denying herself taking pleasure with another person if she liked them and they offered. (Attraction was somewhat complicated for her, considering she couldn’t actually see her partners. She didn’t even take the blindfold off during sex. She wasn’t immune to a pleasing form, but no matter the shape of their bodies, if a person’s _spirit _was ugly, it wasn’t something that Luciana could simply ignore.)

“Yes,” Kourin agreed, jerking in her grasp to try and press closer against her but unable to break her hold. “Come back with that sea prism without them catching you, and I’ll take you to dinner whenever you like.”

Satisfied with that answer, Luciana let Kourin’s wrists go and drew him into a deep kiss, his newly-freed fingers tangling behind her head in her explosion of curly hair. “I’ll do it,” she murmured once they came back up for air. “You’ll see.”

He never answered as to whether or not he believed her. Luciana didn’t mind. She _was _exceptionally distracting, and Kourin’s faith –or lack thereof—didn’t really matter to her. She liked him well enough, but he was a convenient acquaintance at best and painfully temporary besides. (She did adore a challenge though, so she didn’t mind striving to meet his. For the time being, it was enough to keep her mind occupied and away from the people she’d rather be with.)

She left early the next morning, and returned two weeks later, smelling strongly of salted fish and carrying more little diamonds of sea prism than she actually strictly needed. Both Elliot and Kourin had been flabbergasted when –after she’d treated herself to a long bath and a good meal—Luciana regaled them with the story of how she’d stowed away on the largest Marine vessel she could find by hiding in a barrel of salted fish (always the last of the rations to go, since fresh was much better and more readily available) and waited until most of the crew were sleeping to sneak down to the hull and chip away at the lining from the inside. It had taken her several days to collect enough sea prism. Both because it was _stupid _hard to pry out of is settings, and also because she moved to a different spot every night so as not to create a large and noticeable gap in coverage. After that, it was merely a matter of waiting until the ship docked at the next island, sneaking out, and hitching a ride back to Woodcreek Row as a passenger on a trading barge. Easy as pie.

(It hadn’t been easy in the slightest. It had been _absurdly _nerve-wracking, actually, despite her ability to tell whenever someone was coming down into the cargo hold in plenty of time to hide back in the fish barrel. And sneaking off the ship afterwards had been so difficult to manage via the docks that it necessitated her making a mad dash from the deck hatch to the railing and leaping straight over the side of the ship while praying no one saw or heard her brief appearance on deck. She’d swum clean out of the harbor before she’d felt safe enough to return to land. Still, she enjoyed the reactions of mixed awe and horror that the two brothers were giving her too much to admit to any of that.)

The sense of vindication Luciana felt as Kourin handed over her finished (free!) quarterstaff made the whole ordeal more than worth it. It served him right for not even believing that this was how Navy vessels were able to cross the Calm Belt in the first place. (As if she had any reason to lie.) He’d outdone himself. The quarterstaff was made of oak and lacquered, just as her escrima were, but had been afforded more detail due to its greater size. Kourin had carved a simple leaf pattern circling each end of the quarterstaff, and had arranged the sea prism studs along its length in a pleasing wave shape. She’d thanked him with the appropriate enthusiasm such a gift had earned later in the evening, and the next morning sold the leftover sea prism stone back to Elliot at a steep discount. It was with these funds that she finally got her first tattoos. (Something she’d been considering doing for quite some time. It wasn’t something that was practiced by the Rondian monks, but… she wasn’t really one of them anymore.)

Her left arm was dominated by a tangle of purple monkshood, the only tattoo she left visible in her normal clothes. (The one that was least important, but still pretty.) Her other additions wound down her spine, hidden from view by her shirt. These were the letters ASL, which were inked in a calligraphic style that had each letter looping in with each other as they stacked top to bottom, with the letter L ending just above the small of her back. And perched neatly between her shoulder blades, little claws gripping the apex of the A, was an elegant red-throated robin.

These were the four people that Luciana was entirely devoted to. She thought it only fitting that she commemorate her love for them with something just as permanent. In this sense, the bite of the needle was almost reassuring.

Though this didn’t make the healing process any less painful. It had taken two days for all of her tattoos to be completed, and it took another three before she felt that her poor abused skin had healed enough for her to take her leave from Woodcreek Row. She probably did so too soon, but Luciana healed quickly in this life, and she was eager to put her new sea prism to use. She’d already made a name for herself with poisons –her signature methods being the use of either curare extract for a quick death, or monkshood for a slow one. (Hence her aforementioned tattoo.) But now it was time to go after some bigger fish. Luciana had a lot of practicing to do after all, before she could consider herself prepared to be the first mate to the future King of the pirates.

After all, she _did _adore a challenge.


	16. Wednesday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! So fair warning, Whiskey Peak will be split into two chapters, because I'm a sick bastard who enjoys drawing out the DRAMA of it all. This is part one, in which Vivi shows up, Lucy and Zoro are the dream team, and Robin (allegedly) commits murder.

The first time that Luciana met Nefertari Vivi, the girl was done up like a cheap sideshow villain, dripping with a whale’s stomach acid, and positively miserable despite the strange false bravado of her and Mr. 9’s Team Rocket routine. She’d been expecting as much really, but Luciana hadn’t expected for Vivi to be so… young. No matter that at sixteen, the girl was only a year younger than Luffy and Usopp and that Luffy was the biggest child she knew, Luciana couldn’t help but be struck by Vivi’s youth over all other characteristics the moment they met in person.

Vivi was neither the most powerful person in body nor the most forceful in personality that Luciana had ever met. She _was _pure of heart though (as cliché as that sounded) in a way that Luciana had only ever really associated with children before. Behind all the screaming fear and desperation that swirled overpowered her on surface, Luciana could immediately tell that Vivi was a person of unique quality. Someone who believed so fiercely in the inherent goodness of people that this belief was a foundation of who she was. It wasn’t a quality that Luciana immediately dismissed as naïve or childish in and of itself. Not at all. Just that this was something that was incredibly rare to find in adults, who by default had usually seen a lot more of the world and had been jaded by it. That Vivi –even though she _was _only sixteen—still retained such inherent hope and faith after the hardships she’d faced so far was both surprising… and yet not surprising at all.

It was concerning mostly, if she were being honest with herself. No matter how brave it showed Vivi to be. Luciana’s protective instincts ticked _hard _when Miss Wednesday and Mr. 9 were thrown onto the deck of the Going Merry, and she twitched in place as she watched, agitated. This kid needed a _hug, _but… it wasn’t as if she could really _do _anything right now. They’d literally just met, and Miss Wednesday was their enemy, after all. Baroque Works was an organization of bounty hunters first and foremost, and she alone had 10 million beri on her head. Not to mention Luffy’s far more impressive 30 million.

Still, Luciana had mixed feelings about Vivi, and they occupied her thoughts even as they exited Laboon so they could properly speak with Crocus. She knew that the princess was a good person. Maybe even a great one. But she had a lot to learn still if she hoped to save her country, and Luciana wasn’t sure if she’d be able to help her as much as she deserved.

(Because with Vivi came Whiskey Peak, and with Whiskey Peak came _Robin_. And there wasn’t a person in this world that Luciana would put above Robin.)

The others took note of her strange reaction to Miss Wednesday, she knew. Luciana had paid conspicuously close attention to her while almost completely ignoring Mr. 9, and had –perhaps more shockingly—spoken up in agreement with the idea of giving the two agents a ride to Whiskey Peak. Despite the fact that she was the first mate, it was unusual for Luciana to weigh in on ship matters unless she explicitly disagreed with her brother, usually content to let him have his way without her input unless there was something specific she wanted or needed. That she did so now and kept such a silent but intense watch on one of their passengers –which was normally somewhat difficult for others to discern, given that she didn’t actually need to _look _at the object of her attention—seemed to make the more intuitive of her crewmembers uneasy, though not threatened, given their first mate’s relaxed body language around the girl in question.

Not that anyone had a lot of time to dwell on it. In the aftermath of Luffy choosing to pick a fight with the monstrous whale (and Luciana had bruised him but _good _for breaking Merry’s mast off like that, even if she _was _proud of him for helping Laboon) they’d set out onto the Grand Line almost immediately, with their navigator learning her way around a log pose for the first time as she went.

Predictably, it was chaos.

Smiling fondly, Luciana remained lazily sprawled across the middle of the floor in the galley as her little brother and Usopp played in the snow falling on the deck.

“How come they’re so energetic when it’s so cold?” Nami complained, glaring out the window.

Luciana chuckled. “Aren’t they always?” she quipped, running her fingers across the wooden planks beneath her hands absentmindedly.

Nami made a face.

“Hey you, doesn’t this ship have a heater?” Mr. 9 piped up from where he and Miss Wednesday were seated at the table and huddled in a couple of blankets that Luciana had literally thrown at their heads once the temperature had started dropping.

“I’m cold,” Mis Wednesday agreed.

“Shut up! You guys aren’t guests. Go outside and shovel snow or something!” Nami snapped. Her temper was worn especially thin today. Luciana knew that her young nakama didn’t like the unpredictability of the weather here. Meteorology was Nami’s _thing _and she knew that it irked her to suddenly feel so out of her element like this, in what was supposed to be _her _field of expertise.

Of course, it didn’t help that it suddenly began to storm outside as well. Poor Nami was beside herself.

“That’s how it is on the Grand Line,” Miss Wednesday stated primly, her tone implying that this should have been obvious.

Beside her, Mr. 9 snickered. “You guys are clueless.”

His partner’s smile grew positively mean-spirited. “You haven’t been steering for a while now. Is that really okay?” she added.

Nami frowned. “I just checked the direction,” she said, only to let out a horrified scream when she realized that they’d already been pulled off-course by the unpredictable currents.

“Are you really a navigator?” Miss Wednesday questioned further, words practically dripping with smug patronization. “In this sea, you can’t trust the wind, waves, clouds… anything. The only thing that doesn’t change is the direction the log pose points. Do you understand that?”

Sitting up, Luciana clicked her tongue disapprovingly. “That’s not a very nice thing to say to somebody who’s helping you out pro-bono,” she scolded as she stood. She grabbed the pair by the backs of their shirts and none-too-gently shoved them out the door. (Though still more gently than the treatment they would have received from Nami, in any case.) “Things are different in the four Blues, but Nami will learn. Now go make yourselves useful before I lose my patience with you!”

Nodding determinedly, Nami shot her a brief smile of thanks before rushing out after them and shouting commands to the crew as she took control of the situation. Her part now played, Luciana slipped back out onto the deck and curled up under the tangerine trees. The trees were too small for climbing, but the area beneath them was just perfect for napping. (Well, not as perfect as her barrel was. But that was filled with snow right now.) And like most times, really, Luciana rather thought that Zoro had the right idea. She wanted to be well-rested for later, after all. So despite the chaos playing out all around her, Luciana drifted right off into a peaceful doze and didn’t wake up until Zoro kicked at the soles of her boots on his way to talk to the others.

He was a jerk for deciding that if he had to be awake that she did too, but she admittedly found it funnier than she probably should have that he’d only just now realized that they’d picked up a pair of passengers.

“Your faces say that you’re thinking bad thoughts,” Zoro teased them as he squatted next to where Miss Wednesday and Mr. 9 were seated on the deck. “What were your names again?”

“They call themselves Mr. 9 and Miss Wednesday,” Luciana told him, planting a hand on her hip and stepping over to the trio with a languid roll of her neck to loosen herself up after her nap. “Cute, isn’t it?”

Zoro grinned at them darkly even as they began to appear quite nervous and their gazes swung between her and Zoro and back. “Sure,” he agreed. “But something has been bothering me ever since I heard your names. I feel like I’ve heard them somewhere before. Or maybe not…”

“What do you know? Me too!” Luciana chimed in, and laughed at the Mr. 9 pair’s discomfort. (No matter how much she knew she’d come to like Vivi, she wasn’t a fan of the Miss Wednesday persona’s attitude. Besides, it wasn’t like she and Zoro were hurting them! They were only playing.) Unfortunately, Nami put an end to their fun by taking out her frustration on the unfortunate swordsman, and Luciana found it prudent to beat a hasty retreat to the foredeck.

Luciana might have been the first mate and Nami generally respected her as such, but she wasn’t afraid to hit her either once she got all worked up, and Luciana would rather avoid having to either take the punishment or spend the effort to dodge. (She wouldn’t risk Nami hurting her hands by blocking properly.) Thankfully, everyone soon became distracted by their arrival at Whiskey Peak and the Mr. 9 pair’s abrupt departure via _leaping off the side of the boat._

Luciana wasn’t sure what was more galling. That these people thought that her crew was insane enough that they’d rather _swim _home, or that they’d had the balls to actually say “bye-bye baby” out loud in a sentence completely unironically.

“Zoro,” Luciana murmured once the rest of the Straw Hats were caught up in the enthusiastic greetings of the townspeople as they disembarked the ship. Even though Nami was rather suspicious, the swordsman alone was as outwardly tense and cautious as the situation warranted. “It’s been a while since I had a proper workout.”

Beside her, the tenseness in Zoro’s shoulders eased. “Me too,” he agreed casually as they followed their crewmates. “This should be fun.”

And honestly? It kind of was. Despite the entire celebration being a trap, the food was good and the booze was passable, and her crewmates all seemed to be having the time of their lives. Luciana even snuck out to slip a few barrels of red wine into the hold of the Going Merry once, figuring she’d need it later after dealing with these crazy kids. (She didn’t feel at all bad about looting. She _was _a pirate, after all.) Of course, the _real _fun began _after _the party, once everyone had seemingly passed out from the revelry. Luciana dropped down from where she’d been pretending to sleep in the rafters (which had been surprisingly comfortable, all things considered) and landed lightly on her feet only a few feet away from Zoro, who sat up immediately.

“Shall we?” she invited.

He grinned wolfishly at her, and followed without a word as she led him to where she sensed Mr. 8, Miss Monday, Mr. 9, and Miss Wednesday outside.

Honestly, speaking of their treachery out in the open like this? It was a wonder this operation had lasted as long as it had. But it was true when Luciana had told Zoro that she hadn’t had a good workout for a while. She was in a good mood after all the feasting and drinking and music, and the prospect of a proper _fight _had her heart racing in her chest with excitement. That these four were particularly pathetic only made her want to _play _with them a little. Just to knock them off those high horses before Vivi became an ally instead of an enemy.

“Hey. Sorry, but… do you mind letting them sleep?” Zoro called from where he and Luciana had taken up spots on the rooftop above them in response to Mr. 8’s orders to capture all of the Straw Hats alive. He was seated and held his sword at just the right angle to catch the moonlight, and had adopted his most predatory mannerisms. The ones that struck fear into the hearts of pirates all across the East Blue. “They’re all exhausted from the journey this afternoon.”

Just behind him, Luciana stood with lazily crossed arms and a bored expression, allowing the wind to whip her long braids across her face. “If they’re woken up now, they’ll be insufferable in the morning,” Luciana added lightly.

The agents of Baroque Works were at first shocked, and then angered. Especially so once Zoro took the time to explain that he’d seen through their little bounty hunting setup.

“It looks like there’s about a hundred bounty hunters here,” Zoro concluded. “We’ll fight you all… Baroque Works!”

“Bastard! How did you know that name?” Mr. 8 yelled as their audience all recoiled with surprise.

“Please,” Luciana answered for him with a derisive snort, pulling her quarterstaff from her back and twirling it theatrically at her side. “We’re the Black Sight and the Pirate Hunter, the two most feared bounty hunters in the East Blue. Baroque Works attempted to recruit each of us, though they obviously failed.”

Zoro nodded. “Baroque Works is just a criminal group that faithfully carries out the orders of a boss they don’t even know the name of,” he concluded. “Was that supposed to be a secret?”

“I see,” sighed Mr. 8, and for a moment, Luciana felt a little bad for him. The man was obviously in way over his head. “Then if you know our secrets, we have no choice but to kill you. Another pair of gravestones will be added to the cactus rocks.”

But by the time their enemies finally made a move to kill them, Zoro and Luciana were already vanished from the rooftop and into the crowd. By unspoken agreement, Zoro moved to take care of the hundred minions while Luciana went straight for the top. Though it was almost pathetic, how easy it was for Zoro to take down his share at such speed and vanish again. No doubt to bring out his two newest swords and start fighting for real so he could test them out. Luciana wasn’t paying much attention to his fight though, fully confident in his ability to win it even if he’d had a hand tied behind his back. Instead, she strode calmly towards the numbered agents, quarterstaff in hand as Mr. 8 shouted orders at his men. “What are you doing? It’s just a single swordsman and a blind woman! Shoot them!”

“Silly man,” she purred as she approached. “Bullets don’t work on me.”

He snarled. “Igarappa!” Bullets flew from his saxophone.

Luciana could have dodged them easily, but she didn’t. Instead, she shifted into Iron Body and let them bounce harmlessly off of her torso. It was a largely unnecessary waste of energy that she wouldn’t normally have indulged in but… she might have been showing off. Just a little. She wanted Vivi and Igaram to believe that she was capable of bringing down a Warlord, after all.

The four agents in front of her gaped in horror. “M-monster!” Mr. 9 stammered, quivering so hard that his stupid little crown wobbled on top of his head.

Luciana threw her head back and laughed, low and wild. “If you think that _I’m _a monster, I feel sorry for you,” she told him sincerely. Because _honestly_. How long could he really have been running around the Grand Line if he hadn’t seen something as relatively tame as this before? It wasn't as if she was doing anything anyone else couldn't have done with enough training and dedication. “You should be glad that it was me, when you finally picked a fight you couldn’t win.”

The fight after that was… short, in a word. Miss Monday fell after a single blow to the head, and Mr. 8 –though more of a challenge than his partner thanks to his bizarre combat style—didn’t take much longer. Zoro had finished with the other bounty hunters in plenty of time to take down Mr. 9, and Vivi was… almost adorably incompetent as they faced her down together.

Luciana would be putting a _permanent _end to that ridiculous perfume dance the very instant that she got her hands on that girl for some proper training.

“Fighting these guys is starting to get embarrassing,” Zoro groaned when Luciana just strode right through Miss Wednesday’s perfume cloud and knocked her and Carue’s heads together. The pair had collapsed instantly, and Zoro appeared genuinely pained at the short end to the whole thing. He’d been looking forward to something a bit more challenging than _this, _she knew.

“It’s been embarrassing this whole time,” she grumbled. “Agent pairs seven and upwards have _got _to be worth more than this, right?”

Zoro’s skeptical silence said everything. Luciana chose to ignore him and proceeded to drag the unconscious forms of their defeated enemies down to street level where she could keep a better eye on them. This was proven to be a wise choice, because by the time they’d begun to stir awake, the Mr. 5 pair arrived and informed their defeated comrades that instead of rescuing them, that they were here to kill them instead.

Of course, Luciana couldn’t allow that.

So when Mr. 8 –no _Igaram_—unleashed his Igarappapa attack at Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine in defense of the Princess of Alabasta, she took the chance to attack them as well, with Zoro following her lead as always. No need to dally. She could sense Nami close by, and knew that she’d take charge of making the deal with Igaram and Vivi from here.

Besides, Mr. 5 used his _boogers _to fight. Luciana felt obligated to kick his ass on principle.

And so she did. (She didn’t want to talk about the booger that had slipped past her defenses when she’d been distracted by Zoro’s almost pathetically one-sided fight with Miss Valentine. The explosion hadn’t really hurt her that much, but it was still _gross._)

By the time that she and Zoro had finished beating the Mr. 5 pair into painful unconsciousness and returned to where they’d left Igaram, Vivi, and Nami, they were both covered in soot and rubble and a deal had already been struck. Nami had even gone to wake up Luffy for his approval, to make it official. Not that Alabasta could afford the 1 billion beri that Nami was requesting, Vivi soon explained. Due to the civil war. And Crocodile.

Even as Nami was attempting to strangle Vivi for letting _that _little tidbit slip, Luciana was turning to her brother.

“Luffy-kun,” she said with a sweet smile. “What do you say we go and beat up a Warlord? Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

Luffy grinned at her. “Yeah!” he enthused.

“BAKA!” Nami shouted. Though if the insult was directed at one or both of them wasn’t entirely clear.

Things only snowballed from there. They were identified by the Unluckies and put on the Baroque Works hitlist, and then Igaram showed up in full drag with the intention of sailing off as a decoy Princess. (Luciana fell off the barrel she was sitting on, she laughed so hard when he approached. “How can you even tell what he looks like?” Vivi shrieked. “You can’t see!”) They escorted him to his ship after that, and that’s when…

That’s when she felt her. _Robin._

Luciana almost didn’t notice the gigantic explosion, she was so enraptured by the achingly familiar presence she sensed distantly out on the water. She was older, of course. It had been fourteen years since they’d last seen each other. But it was still her Robin, beyond any shadow of a doubt. Luciana would know her anywhere, no matter _how _much time had passed.

But then Nami was yelling at her to get a move on, and Vivi was nearly incandescent with grief and rage, and Robin and her turtle were rapidly disappearing back out of Luciana’s range and… it wasn’t time. Not _quite _yet. Luciana remained on the rocky shore only just long enough to determine that Igaram was still alive after having made it safely into the ocean before she took off running after her crewmates, her body practically humming with energy.

Robin was here. She was going to see Robin. _Robin was here._

She could hardly function beyond the basic register of such an overwhelming amount of anticipation. They’d promised to meet again, hadn’t they? Maybe it was fourteen years too late, but… Luciana was glad that this promise, at least, was one she’d be able to keep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't kill me! We're so close to the reunion!


	17. Sunday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Normally I try to alternate chapters with plot and flashbacks but... the anticipation was killing me and I have no self control. Here's what we've all been waiting for!

For the second time in her life, Luciana found herself running from flames blind after losing her concentration in overwhelming emotion. Though this time was infinitely more pleasant than the last occasion.

There was no pain, this time. Only incapacitating _relief._

She barely recalled the stumbling run back to the Going Merry, and didn’t really come back to herself once she felt the deck beneath her feet again and they were ready to set off. Wordlessly, Luciana moved to help Nami and Zoro with the sails as quickly as she could, and she steadied herself in listening to the rapid heartbeats of her nakama, which she supposed included Vivi and Carue now too. This was what grounded her when she once again sensed Robin’s approach, and felt her eyes bloom in various hidden corners of the ship so she could judge the best place to board without being seen.

Luciana knew that she of all people didn’t have room to accuse others of being dramatic, but she had to admit that theatrics on this scale hadn’t really been something she would have expected from the Robin of the past. Appearing seemingly out of thin air was a good trick though –great shock value—so she couldn’t really blame her for it.

“Luffy,” Luciana said quietly from where she stood rooted to the spot near the main mast. “We have a visitor.”

“Eh?”

“This is a nice ship.”

The crew all gasped and spun to face where Robin had perched herself on the railing just above their heads, legs crossed elegantly and as casual as could be as she smirked down at them from beneath the brim of her cowboy hat. She was fully grown now –a gangly teenager no longer—and just as resplendent in her own skin as Luciana had always thought she’d grow to be.

And Luciana was… breathless.

How many times had she imagined this moment? How many times had she fantasized about how it would go? About what she would say? How many nights had she lay awake _aching _to see Robin again? How many times had she counseled herself into patience, knowing that one day, this moment would arrive? And yet now… now that she was finally _here, _Luciana couldn’t think of a _single thing _to do or say. She froze on the spot. She wasn’t even _breathing_. She just… even just hearing Robin’s voice again had shattered her, and she was struggling not to burst into tears on the spot. Just the fact that she now finally knew for sure that Robin was _okay _was more than she could’ve ever hoped for and apparently enough to induce a small breakdown on her part.

(Sue her. She’d _earned _a breakdown, dammit.)

“Who are you?” the others demanded of the intruder.

Robin smiled. “I ran into Mr. 8 a short while ago, Miss Wednesday” she said serenely.

“_You _killed Igaram,” Vivi hissed, eyes narrowed and fists clenching with anger. And yeah, Luciana would have to correct that assumption at some point. Now probably wasn't the best time though.

“Who cares about that?” Luffy interrupted, stepping forwards. “What are you doing on this ship? Who are you?”

“What are you doing here, _Miss All-Sunday_?”

“Miss All-Sunday?” Nami repeated. “What number is she partnered to?”

Vivi’s response, when she spoke, was acidic. “She’s the partner of Mr. 0, the boss!”

Luffy blinked. “Is she bad?”

“She’s the only one that knew the boss’s identity,” Vivi revealed. “We found out who she is by following her!”

“More accurately, I _allowed _you to follow me,” Robin corrected, seemingly completely unruffled by the hostility she was facing from the Princess.

“Oh! Then she’s good!” Luffy concluded.

Vivi completely ignored him. “I know that,” she snapped back. “You’re also the one who told him we discovered his identity, right?”

“Correct.”

“So she really is bad,” Luffy grumbled.

“Shut up, you,” Zoro reprimanded him with a long-suffering sigh. (Luciana felt for him. Luffy was… Luffy, and that wasn’t always a good thing in situations like this one. But there really was no helping it.)

“What is it exactly you’re trying to do?” Vivi cried.

Robin blinked and arranged her face into a smile that made Luciana twitch in agitation. It was a _false _smile, devoid of any real happiness or humor, or even a threat. It was something cheap and plastic to wear to hide the surprising amount of _anger _that Luciana could sense rolling off of her. (And wasn’t it incredible that even if she couldn’t see her with her eyes, Robin was more clear to her sight now than any other person she’d ever met? That even after all this time, Luciana still remembered how to attune herself to her so well?) “I’ve come here for two reasons, Miss Wednesday, only one of which has anything to do with you. But there’s no need to get so worked up. I haven’t been given any orders, so there’s no reason to fight.”

Something about these words must have tipped Zoro off to the underlying rage beneath them –he always _was _a perceptive thing—and he tensed, reaching for his swords. He stopped only when Luciana gripped his shoulder tightly. “And what’s the other reason then?” he challenged. Despite not having drawn any weapons, he seemingly still couldn’t abide by any hostility towards his captain.

Robin’s expression didn’t change in the slightest, though she did flick her eyes in Zoro’s direction before focusing entirely on their Captain. “_Monkey D. _Luffy,” she stated, emphasis on the family name. (Luciana winced. She had a feeling she knew where this was going.) “Some time ago, a man who shared that name stole something precious from me. I am far more curious about what you can tell me about _that _than I am about the ridiculous idea of a Princess trying her hardest to save her kingdom while making herself an enemy of Baroque Works.”

“Don’t you mock me!” Vivi exploded at the blatant dismissal. And then Sanji and Usopp were aiming weapons at Robin, and Zoro had drawn his sword, and Luciana was suddenly catapulted out of her frozen state just as effectively as if she’d been splashed over the head with a bucket of cold water.

No. Just… no. Not acceptable.

“_Stop_!” she screamed before anyone else could say anything, her voice breaking with desperation on the word.

Her crew all froze and stared at her incredulously.

“Ana?” Luffy asked seriously, eyeing her carefully. It was a rare thing for her to use _that _tone when she normally made a point of being (or at least _seeming_) unbothered by just about everything. _This _was the tone she used when someone she cared about was in trouble. As her most troublesome brother, Luffy knew it well.

Luciana swallowed. “Stop,” she repeated, her voice evened out again once more. “Put those away, all of you. Or I’ll make you. I won’t ask again.”

She meant it. And by the way everyone’s eyes widened slightly at her words, she could tell that they knew it too. And slowly, they obeyed and lowered their weapons, despite their obvious confusion. Sanji and Usopp even backed down the stairs a ways.

“Ana, what..?”

Nami’s question was never finished, since Robin finally turned her full attention to Luciana. “And what’s this?” she asked, a trace of amusement entering her voice. “Should I thank you, for keeping them from pointing such dangerous things at me?” _Now _that smile was dangerous. Luciana could feel Robin’s gaze on her, more sharply than she’d looked at anyone else on the ship. Intent, and _searching. _Her words were meant as a challenge, testing to see how she’d respond. Luciana certainly didn’t want to disappoint, but she felt… uncharacteristically tongue-tied. Even if she wasn’t one for talking much, she never usually felt any hesitation in saying what needed to be said no matter who she was talking to.

Other people weren’t _Robin_, though.

Slowly, Luciana shook her head. “Not at all,” she said thickly, all the things she _wanted _to say feeling stuck in her throat now, leaving only this. “I was just keeping a promise.”

Thankfully, it seemed to be enough; though the reaction she received wasn’t exactly what she’d expected. Robin sucked in a deep breath and gripped tightly onto the railing she was sitting on as if she suddenly felt in danger of toppling right off. “So it’s true then,” Robin said breathlessly. “_Lucy_.” Her entire villainous persona shattered in an instant as her voice wavered plaintively. Luciana was nearly sent reeling with the sheer force of grief and shock and _hope _that suddenly radiated from Robin at Luciana’s words. Strong enough that they projected with almost painful clarity to her senses.

Despite this, Luciana smiled at her radiantly, unable to help it at this point. “It’s me,” she confirmed, and okay, maybe she _was _crying now. But she needed an outlet for the maelstrom of emotions that had taken up residence in her own chest, or else she’d _explode. _She couldn’t help but tease a little. “And I thought _I _was the blind one.”

Robin cringed as if she’d slapped her, and Luciana could admit that the joke was… perhaps in poor taste, given what had happened the last time they’d been together. But this was an intense moment and she wasn’t sure how else to diffuse the tension. (No one had ever accused her of being a comedic genius.)

“You… you’re _alive_,” Robin said instead of reprimanding her, and… she sounded surprised. _Really _surprised. Like this was the last thing she’d been expecting today (or _ever_) and like she might just pass out with the shock of the revelation. Which… didn’t seem right. “When I saw the bounty for a blind woman posted alongside someone with the name Monkey D, I’d _hoped… _but I could hardly believe it.”

Frowning, Luciana began walking up the stairs, pushing past a gaping Usopp as she did so. “Of course I’m alive. We promised to meet again, didn’t we?”

“I thought it was a dream,” Robin admitted, still leaning heavily against her grip on the railing and watching Luciana’s progress with an expression that bordered between awe and complete disbelief. “One minute you were there, and the next you were gone, and there was… so much blood. I thought that you’d bled out, if not there then in the Navy’s care.”

Luciana’s gut coiled guiltily at the brief choked roughness in Robin’s normally perfectly even voice. “I didn’t,” she said simply, unable to think of anything else to say in response to that information. She drew to a stop just inches away from her. “And I’m sorry I didn’t find you sooner. I’m sorry that I failed you, all those years ago, and I…” Her voice broke on the confession. “I _missed _you, Bobby, all this time.”

A beat of silence hung between them. Entire sentences left unsaid because this wasn’t the time to say them, but an acknowledgement that they were there. That histories and explanations would come in time, but not _now. _Robin blinked rapidly, eyes suspiciously bright. “It wasn’t your fault,” she said. “I should have…” She trailed off and reached out with one trembling hand and ran her fingers regretfully over the bottom edge of Luciana’s blindfold, grazing against her cheekbone. The hand then drifted down and gave a playful tug to one of her braids. “You… you have so much _hair_,” Robin sniffled.

“I like to think it’s making up for lost time,” Luciana agreed wetly, before lunging forwards and wrapping Robin up in as fierce a hug as she could manage without actually hurting her, pulling her carefully off the railing so she could stand on her own two feet. It was returned with equal enthusiasm. Greater, even, since Luciana was pretty sure Robin had sprouted an entire second set of arms for the sole purpose of holding her even closer. (Robin’s devil fruit made her the _best _at hugs.)

It was different now, than it had been before. Robin didn’t smell of campfire and rosemary soap anymore, but instead of unfamiliar perfume and coffee. Neither of their bodies were shaped the same, and they didn’t fit against each other in the same way as they once had. A pair of Robin’s hands were now buried in the thick locks of hair that Luciana had never had before, and Luciana’s forehead knocked awkwardly against the brim of Robin’s new hat. Underneath all that though, they were still _them_. Robin was taller than her, still. Not by much, but the difference was there, exaggerated some by Robin’s hat and heeled boots. Luciana was still a noisy crier, and Robin still a heartbreakingly silent one. Robin still touched her like she was made of glass and might shatter on a moment’s notice if she didn’t protect her with her whole body, and Luciana threw herself into hugs like they were the last ones she might ever receive. And even now, Robin still pressed her face into Luciana’s left shoulder –never the right—while Luciana rested her cheek on top of her head (after she’d pulled off Robin’s stupid hat in frustration).

Well, she didn’t _really _think the hat was stupid. It was just in the way. To be honest, the whole stripper cowgirl look Robin had going on at the moment kind of really did it for her, which was somewhat unexpected. But Luciana had better things to worry about right now.

Such as the peanut gallery.

“So… she _is _good, after all,” Luffy piped up from below them, suddenly reminding Luciana that she was still surrounded by her nakama, all of whom were gaping at her and Robin like they’d never seen two people hug before.

She sighed. Little brothers were so annoying.

Robin grew rigid in her arms, and Luciana nearly whined when she pulled away and arranged her hat neatly back atop her head like nothing had ever happened. Still, she let her go. To Robin, this was a ship full of strangers at best and enemies at worst, and Luciana didn’t want her to feel vulnerable in front of them if that would make her uncomfortable. (It didn’t mean that she had to like it, though.)

“Good or bad doesn’t matter, Luffy-kun,” Luciana told him lightly, not bothering to turn to face him. She couldn’t bring herself to remove her focus from the woman in front of her even symbolically. “Miss All-Sunday is my friend, and I promised her that she’d always be safe with me.”

“What?” the rest of the crew blurted in unison, beyond confused. At her side though, Robin’s posture relaxed infinitesimally at the declaration, and Luciana smiled fondly at her.

“Oh!” Luffy said. This was something that would make perfect sense to him, she knew, even if he _hadn’t _already known about Luciana’s lifelong search for the person she’d made this promise to and failed. “This is _her. _Okay.” And that was that.

“You can’t be serious,” Vivi protested, clenching her fists and staring up at her wide-eyed with betrayal. “She’s Baroque Works!”

Luciana wrinkled her nose and waved a dismissive hand in Vivi’s direction. “So are you, _Miss Wednesday, _and you don’t hear me complaining about it,” she pointed out sternly, ignoring the guilty pang in her chest that she felt from dismissing the girl’s trauma in such a way. “And I’m not asking you to be best friends with her anyways. I’m _telling _you that this woman is under my protection, and is off-limits to all of you unless you deal with me first. Just give us a minute, will you?”

Determinedly, her brother nodded. “Souka,” he agreed, before grabbing Zoro by the elbow and Usopp by his nose and starting to drag them below decks. “Come on guys! Ana’s been looking for this lady for a long time. We can ask her about it later.”

“Someone has to steer the ship,” Nami said hastily.

Luciana nodded in agreement. “You and Sanji can take care of it,” she allowed.

For her part, Vivi appeared downright mutinous as she crossed her arms and _glared. _Luciana didn’t have the emotional energy to deal with that at the moment though, and simply tilted her head and quirked an eyebrow at Nami. Thankfully, Nami understood the unspoken request and herded the girl and her duck off to the side, so she and her hostility at least wouldn’t be in their immediate vicinity. Luciana didn’t really care who was listening in to the upcoming conversation either way as long as they weren’t interrupted, if she was being honest: though she was touched by her brother’s concern. As it was, she realized that they were swiftly running out of time.

Robin seemed to realize it too. “Stay away from Alabasta,” she insisted in a low voice the moment the majority of the crew had vanished below decks and Nami, Sanji, and Vivi had taken up positions far enough away that it was _possible _they weren’t eavesdropping. (Though it was unlikely.) “Crocodile will be making his move soon and I don’t want you anywhere near him.”

“Friends don’t let friends try to assassinate Warlords alone,” Luciana sniffed.

“Who said I was going to assassinate him?” Robin retorted, crossing her arms defensively.

Beneath her blindfold, Luciana rolled her eye. “Please,” she dismissed. “As capable as I know you are, if Crocodile sought _you _out to be his partner in this plan and you agreed, that can only mean that there’s a poneglyph in Alabasta. You wouldn’t help with something like this for anything less. I’m guessing it’s most likely under the protection of the royal family, if you’ve been so busy inciting a civil war like the Princess claims. I sincerely doubt that Crocodile wants to read it for the same reason that you do though.”

Mouth pressed thin, Robin remained stubbornly silent.

This didn’t deter Luciana in the slightest. “You may not care what happens to the ruling family of a single island,” she pressed, tugging Robin’s hand free and squeezing it in her own, “but I _do _know that you’d never go so far as to give up _that _sort of information, no matter what the poneglyph actually says. You’d intended to send us on with Vivi as a distraction if I wasn’t here, didn’t you? So that you could turn on Crocodile once he got you to the poneglyph? It’s what I would do in your place.”

She hadn’t forgotten how well Robin had needled the crew in canon. After her appearance, they’d been more determined than ever to get to Alabasta, which she realized was exactly what Robin had been aiming for all along, since the woman was planning on betraying Crocodile at the last second. It would only help her if he was already weakened or distracted by his fight with the rookie pirates. Robin had chosen to help them along on their journey because with Vivi at their side, the Warlord would be unable to resist rising to the bait regardless of how unlikely it was that they actually posed a true threat to him. Of course, things were different now. Luciana was here to help, even if Robin didn’t believe her any more capable of victory than her brother. She’d show her better, though. Luffy was stronger than Robin gave him credit for, and Luciana wasn’t the same weak little girl who Garp had carried off of Rondia fourteen years ago either. Robin could trust her to take care of herself now –and perhaps more importantly—to take care of _her _if it was needed. She’d prove it.

“I’d forgotten how smart you are,” Robin confessed, releasing a frustrated breath out through her nose. (And Luciana absolutely did _not _flush at the compliment, thank you.) “You’re right. But I’ll find somebody else to do the job. Crocodile is too much for you to handle. Do whatever you have to do to convince your Captain to turn this ship around.”

Helpless to stop it, Luciana let out a little giggle at the thought of trying to deter _any _of the crew from their chosen course now, much less Monkey D. Luffy himself. “_That’ll _be the day,” she said dryly. “I wouldn’t dare try to come between my brother and helping a friend. It would literally be easier to defeat Crocodile,” she added more sincerely. It wasn’t an exaggeration.

Robin’s body jerked, and a strange combination of incredulity and anger flickered over her features. “Your brother?” she hissed. “He’s a _Monkey_. He—”

“—isn’t his grandfather,” Luciana finished seriously, cutting her off. It wasn’t as if she couldn’t understand Robin’s feelings on the matter. Garp had _stolen _something from them, and regardless of Luciana’s own complicated feelings for the man, she wouldn’t try to dictate the way Robin felt about him. She wouldn’t allow those feelings to color Robin’s opinion of _Luffy_, however. “There’s… so much I have to tell you,” Luciana sighed, not bothering to mask the sheer _longing _in her voice. “But Luffy, he… he’s precious to me, and I to him. You can trust me when I say though, that there’s nothing even _I _could do to make him give up on a friend. Not that I particularly want to, in this case. I’m more than happy to let him have this one.”

“Lucy, I’m being serious.”

“So am I,” she returned easily. Sincerely. “You don’t know them. They might not look like much, but my crew is made up of… the most _amazing _people, Bobby.” It was the truth. She was so, _so _proud of the Straw Hats. “We’re stronger together. And Luffy wants to be the Pirate King. If we can’t defeat even a single Warlord, then we deserve to die at Crocodile’s hands anyways. Do you think I would’ve come to the Grand Line to look for you if I wasn’t confident in my ability to keep my promise? To keep you safe?”

Robin’s breath caught, and tears welled in her eyes. “Don’t say that,” she whispered.

Luciana ignored the way that Robin’s tears felt like they were tearing up her insides and squeezed her hand tighter. Robin didn’t know her crew like Luciana did. They wouldn’t fail. “We’re going to Alabasta,” she said, half confident declaration and half apology for so blatantly ignoring Robin’s wishes. “If we lose, you’ll get your chance to see the poneglyph, and we’ll have been the best damn distraction you could have ever asked for. If we win… you’ll be free of Crocodile, and I’ll find a way to take you to the poneglyph myself. You should know I don’t plan on us losing.”

In her own, Robin’s hand was trembling. “Please don’t, Lucy,” she commanded sharply. “I can’t… Just wait for me here. Please.”

“I’ll wait for you in _Alabasta_,” Luciana insisted stubbornly. “It’ll be okay.”

“It _won’t _be if you get yourself killed!” The ‘again’ in Robin’s statement was only implied, but hung in the air for louder and longer than any of her other words combined. She yanked her hand out of Luciana’s grasp, and Luciana could tell from the cold expression on her face as she glared at her that Robin was seriously contemplating disabling the lot of them here and now so that they’d be unable to continue further. She _reeked _of fear at an intensity that seemed almost unwarranted despite the seriousness of the conversation, and Luciana silently reminded herself that Robin had once witnessed everyone she’d ever known and loved murdered in front of her in a single day. (That until mere minutes ago, Luciana had been counted amongst the dead as well.) It didn’t surprise her that Robin would be willing to do just about anything to keep someone she loved safe in light of that history of loss, including hurting them _herself _if need be.

Luciana rather liked her spine intact though, and decided to proceed with a bit more caution.

She sighed. “Robin,” she coaxed gently. “I’m not rushing into this ignorantly or foolishly. I understood what I was getting into even before I knew you were involved. You may not believe me, but surviving a fight against Crocodile is well within our capabilities. I’ve trained a very long time for something like this. I know I failed you before, but… please,” she begged. “Please trust me.” It was a lot to ask of someone like Robin, she knew, for whom betrayal was just a basic fact of life at this point. Maybe it wasn’t even fair of her to ask it of her in the first place, given that Luciana may have broken whatever trust they’d built the moment she’d chosen to stay away from her for so long, but… Luciana honestly didn’t know what else she could do to convince her not to do anything desperate.

Robin swallowed, and looked off to the side of the ship into the swirling fog that surrounded them. (Luciana could feel the damp chill as it curled over her skin.) For a long moment, Luciana wasn’t sure she’d even answer. At long last though, Robin finally spoke, even if her volume was barely more than a mere whisper. “You didn’t,” she said firmly. “Fail me, that is. I survived because of you… didn’t I?”

Luciana smiled bitterly. It wasn’t something she’d necessarily planned to bring up right at the moment, but Robin was the smartest person she knew. She should have expected her to figure it out once she realized that not only was Luciana still alive, but that she was sailing under the flag of a Monkey. “You did,” she freely admitted. “When I couldn’t fight anymore, I made a trade. My life for yours. It was our dumb luck that you were found by the one Marine who would’ve taken that deal.”

Blinking, Robin released an incredulous laugh. It wasn’t a happy sound. “Lucky?” she mused aloud. “Nothing that happened to you after finding me was lucky.”

“Sure it was,” Luciana argued, and flicked Robin on the nose in retaliation for such a self-deprecating attitude. (Robin appeared so _stunned _at the action that Luciana nearly burst out laughing.) “I wouldn’t trade our time together for _anything_. I’d lose as many eyes as it takes.” She meant it.

“Baka,” Robin insulted her weakly, before pulling Luciana back into her arms again and squeezing her tightly. Luciana just hummed and sank into her hold. She would’ve been content to stay there forever, but after a few moments, Robin reluctantly released her and pressed what Luciana recognized as an eternal pose into her hands. “The next island in this chain is called Little Garden,” she explained as Luciana explored the surface of the object with curious fingers. “It’s notoriously deadly. Very few people survive the trip through, and the Mr. 3 pair is stationed there as well. You can skip past Little Garden with that. It points to an island just before Alabasta: Nanimonaishima. None of our employees know that course, so no one will chase you.”

Humming thoughtfully, Luciana tucked the eternal pose into her pocket. She strategically decided not to mention to Robin that the possibility of Luffy actually agreeing to cut his adventure short this way was close to zero. It would only upset her further. “You have to leave, don’t you?” she stated instead, taking note of the tension and strain steadily growing in Robin’s body. Her heart ached as she noticed.

“Yes,” Robin sighed, swallowing painfully. “Crocodile will be expecting me to report back soon.”

Luciana bit down on her tongue hard. She wanted to grab Robin and shake her and yell in her face that she didn’t have to answer to anyone _ever again _if she didn’t want to, much less to someone like _Crocodile_… but at this point, she knew the woman wouldn’t believe her. Why should she? Because as incredible as it was that they were reunited again… those fourteen years they’d spent apart still stood between them like a brick wall. They were halfway to being strangers again, and Luciana couldn’t ask Robin to throw away this chance at chasing her dream on her word alone anymore. It wouldn’t be fair.

Carefully, Luciana extracted herself and walked Robin over to the side of the ship where her turtle was waiting for her. Her chest felt heavy. Now that she’d finally seen her again… well was it truly surprising that she didn’t want to let Robin out of her sight? Her steps dragged, and from the knowing look that Robin shot her, Luciana knew she understood how she felt. Just as she knew that they _both _knew that Robin couldn’t stay. (Not with the two of them being so stubborn about wanting to handle this each on their own. Because Luciana wouldn’t run away from this, and Robin didn’t want her help.) It would bring Crocodile’s attention onto them in the worst possible way, and _that _would be dangerous for everyone involved. It wasn’t something they even really needed to discuss.

“We’ll see each other again in Alabasta,” Luciana promised her. Her voice sounded… small, like she was just a little girl with a shaved head and scraped knees all over again. “Stay safe. You’re not allowed to leave without me.”

“If you don’t show, I’m going to Little Garden to recover your body and I’m keeping your ashes in the world’s ugliest jar as punishment for not listening to me,” Robin warned her in a poor attempt at levity. (Because of _course _she’d known that Luciana had no intention of following her advice. She always knew.)

Poor attempt or not though, it worked. Through her slightly guilty smile, Luciana wrinkled her nose. “Gross. Just get on your weird turtle already. I love you.”

For a moment, Robin seemed stunned at how casually she’d thrown out those familiar words. She froze instantly in place, her breath caught in her throat. Guiltily, Luciana surmised that it’d been a long time since she’d last heard them. Still, she’d waited long enough to tell her again, and she didn’t regret saying it. She _meant _it. (It really shouldn’t come as a surprise to her anyways. Robin _had _met her before. She knew her well enough to know that Luciana’s love, once given, wasn’t lost so easily.) Sure enough, Robin recovered quickly. Smiling in the most genuine way she had all night, she shook her head fondly and brushed her lips against Luciana’s cheek. “I love you too, Lucy,” she said softly into her ear. Despite the smile, she sounded… sad.

The way that she departed almost in a rush after that told Luciana that Robin was hurting just as much from this as she was. Unlike Luciana however, Robin’s best defense mechanism had always been removing herself from the situation. Graceful as anything, she vaulted herself over the side of the ship and onto the back of her turtle; and just like that, she was gone. Again. Leaning heavily over the side of the Merry, Luciana didn’t move away from her spot as she monitored Robin’s progress, her head turning to track her path as if she really did have eyes.

It hurt. Like ripping the scab off a deep wound thought long since healed. Forcing herself to let Robin go _again _brought back vivid memories of the copper and gunpowder smell of a Navy uniform soaked through with blood, and of scorching pain in eyes that could no longer shed tears. Of a boy that considered himself unworthy of life by virtue of his parentage just as a girl once had, but had reacted to Luciana’s outstretched hand with fear and anger rather than love and gratitude. Of years and _years _of crushing isolation –outside of Dadan, Dogra, and Magra’s questionable company—that might have crushed her spirit entirely if she hadn’t known to wait for Luffy.

It was an old wound. Too old to be reopened comfortably. Luciana knew she wouldn’t sleep tonight.

That turtle really did move frighteningly quickly, Luciana mused idly. She kind of wanted one.

“So,” Nami said suddenly from directly behind her, shattering the silence that had fallen over the Going Merry like a shroud. Luciana resisted the urge to nearly leap out of her own skin in surprise –not having been paying enough attention to sense her coming—but only just. “Mind telling us what the hell _that _was?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you so much to those of you who take the time to leave a comment. They make my day, and I'm always happy to answer any questions you guys might have!


	18. Strength

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! It's been a minute since the last update, huh? My bad. I'm in graduate school and finals were kicking my teeth in. Finally got this chapter out though! (Next chapter may have a bit of a delay as well. It's the holidays and I'll probably be spending a lot of time with family.)

It was actually a little surprising that it took until just after the defeat of Arlong for one of her new crewmates to finally ask Luciana about how she could ‘see’ despite her blindfold. Frankly, Luciana hadn’t expected that level of self-control from any of them. Well, Zoro she could understand perhaps, as he tended to file most things unrelated to swords and the crew’s wellbeing under the title of ‘none of his business’ and leave it at that. Sanji was usually too busy acting like an idiot around anything he perceived to have a vagina to actually hold any sort of meaningful conversation with her anyways, for the most part. (Luciana planned to change that soon, but… baby steps.) Nami was a complete busybody though, and Usopp possessed the sort of insatiable curiosity and sharp mind that was characteristic of someone of his unusual intelligence, which was incidentally completely endearing if occasionally exasperating to deal with.

Still, it wasn’t until Luciana really started pushing them that Nami’s admirable patience finally reached its limit.

Of all the East Blue crew aside from her little brother, it was Nami and Usopp that Luciana tended to most view as _hers. _At this point, Luciana had grown to accept that she had a _bit _of a problem about adopting people. She just couldn’t help herself! (And she never really wanted to honestly, because the way that she could love other people was something that she loved about herself, even if it inevitably caused her no end of trouble.) So it hadn’t come as a surprise to her that she felt this way about her sniper and navigator in particular. She’d expected it, honestly. For the most part, Luciana felt as if she could trust Zoro and Sanji to look after themselves in these waters. The pair of them were still self-sacrificing idiots of course, but it wasn’t as if she could throw stones at that glass house; and Zoro in particular fell into the category of best friend in her mind rather than little sibling. She hadn’t known Sanji for very long, but Luciana imagined that her relationship with him would eventually turn out similarly. Simply put, they didn’t _need _her. (It was nice to know that they still wanted her around anyways though.)

Nami and Usopp, on the other hand, were _absolutely _adoptable. Maybe it was because they were younger –or maybe it was because they were the only ones who couldn’t be considered front line fighters—but she was more protective of them than she was of even Luffy. (Even if he was strong enough now that Luciana very rarely worried over him, she could still vividly remember the tiny, weepy little boy who used to punch himself in the face every time he tried to use his gum-gum pistol. When she wasn’t kicking his ass for one reason or another, she babied him horribly.) To be fair, she babied all of her nakama to some extent –even if only a small one—when she could get away with it. It was just that Luffy was the one who was most likely to _let _her. Of course, she no longer felt the pressing need to _push _him as hard as she once had, now that he could hold his own against most of the enemies they were likely to encounter in the first half of Paradise. The same could not be said for their navigator and sniper.

It was just unfortunate for Nami and Usopp, then, that Luciana’s version of adoption had evolved more along the lines of the Garp Method™ than anything else.

For all that she held a nearly desperate affection for all of her nakama, Luciana had to admit that she didn’t know how to love very well. If she were being generous, she’d describe her methods as gruff at best and brutal at worst. (Her own softness and weakness had gotten her into trouble once before: it was better to have it this this way then to ever let it happen again.) It was just that… whenever she thought about their current strengths and weaknesses, and about the trials they had yet to face… Luciana couldn’t bear the thought of any of them getting hurt. Nami and Usopp just weren’t heavy hitters like herself, Luffy, Zoro, or Sanji. They couldn’t take the same amount of punishment. There wasn’t anything wrong with that of course –and this didn’t mean that they were weak by _any _means—but Luciana was well aware that their strengths lay outside of an all-out brawl: which unfortunately for them, was something they’d run into a lot as nakama of the future Pirate King. So it was only natural then, that Luciana do her best to address the situation the only way she knew how.

By dragging the pair of them out onto the main deck, telling them to defend themselves, and proceeding to cheerfully knock them around with her escrima while shouting helpful suggestions at them for improvement until they either _did _improve, or begged for a break. Lather, rinse, repeat.

This was something that Luffy watched happen from his special seat on the Merry’s figurehead with an inhumanly wide smile and no small amount of vindication radiating off of him. Luciana had never gone easy on him, just as she refused to go easy on Nami and Usopp. (Their enemies wouldn’t do so, so why should she? It would be doing them a disservice, she explained when they asked her about it, which they reluctantly accepted as solid reasoning.) Still, she imagined that it was nice for Luffy not to be on the receiving end of this for once. Well, she didn’t have to imagine. It _was _nice. Nami and Usopp should count themselves as lucky that it was Luciana who was training them rather than Grandma Izumi –or worse, _Garp_. Even now, she wasn’t crazy enough that she capable of dishing out punishment like those two could. Not even close.

Of course, _they _didn’t know that. And even if both of them understood and appreciated Luciana’s intentions by training them so vigorously in the wake of how they’d been nearly outclassed by Arlong’s crew, this didn’t mean that they were immune to the pain and frustration of the whole ordeal. It was actually almost impressive that they’d lasted through three consecutive mornings of this before snapping.

“Fuck, how are you _doing _that?” Nami finally cried, dropping her bo staff to her feet with a clatter and actually stomping her foot in frustration. (It was adorably sincere, in an impending-violence sort of way.)

“Seriously,” Usopp agreed, firing another pachinko Luciana’s way and groaning when –like always—she dodged perfectly with a minimum of movement. “This should be completely impossible. You’re _blind_.”

Of all her training exercises, this one _should _have been their favorite by far. At the end of every training session (Luciana only worked them for about four hours every morning so they could have the whole afternoon to rest and recover and indulge in their own respective hobbies. She wasn’t a _complete _sadist.) she would drop her weapons, and give the pair of them free reign to attack her. She wouldn’t defend herself, and limited herself to only dodging. It wasn’t anything new or even slightly difficult for her, but Luciana liked that this would give her reluctant students practice at dealing with opponents that were faster than they were. Target practice set on expert mode, essentially. Neither was fast enough to hit her yet though, which was apparently even more frustrating than when _she _hit _them._

From his perch, Luffy snickered. “Nami and Usopp are funny,” he announced. “Ana doesn’t need her eyes to see!”

“If I didn’t know better, I would’ve assumed you’d eaten a devil fruit,” Zoro chimed in when Nami glared at Luffy like she hoped he’d spontaneously combust. The swordsman often napped nearby during Usopp and Nami’s morning training sessions. Presumably saving up energy for when Luciana, Luffy, Sanji, and himself would train and spar in the afternoons. Sanji was often present as well. He provided drinks and snacks during their breaks, when he wasn’t preparing a meal or training himself. This meant that aside from Luffy (who was still giggling to himself like a little idiot), every person on board the Going Merry was now looking at her curiously and impatiently waiting for her response.

So because she was just as much of a little shit as her brother and only marginally better at hiding it, Luciana just gave them a very familiar D-shaped grin. “It’s a mystery power!” she chirped, then broke down and laughed uproariously at herself when her nakama all twitched in unison.

(One didn’t simply become a Staw Hat Pirate without developing a few Luffy-induced ticks.)

Because she deserved it, Luciana didn’t dodge when Nami hit her this time. Because she wasn’t _actually _sorry for her little joke, she didn’t stop laughing. But because she loved her nakama, Luciana did eventually seize the opportunity to explain the basics of Haki to them, to mixed reactions.

Usopp especially seemed skeptical. “I don’t understand,” he complained. “If everyone can use these powers if they have enough willpower, why don’t more people have them?”

By this time, the crew had all arranged themselves in a semicircle on the deck of the ship in various seated positions, so that they could each face where Luciana was sitting in a lotus pose like a kindergarten teacher during story time. This was perhaps the longest conversation she’d ever had with the group as a whole, but Luciana felt comfortable in this role. She’d been a teacher for long enough now that it almost felt like coming home. “It’s not _just _willpower alone,” Luciana prevaricated with a thoughtful frown. “It’s… having an understanding of who you are, and what you can do. It’s knowing exactly where your limits are so that you can _break _them. It’s having complete confidence in your abilities to change the world and _making _it happen, because you don’t have any doubt inside you that you can. Just because everyone has the _potential _to unlock Observation and Armament doesn’t mean that everyone puts in the time and effort it takes to become a person like that.”

“But you did,” Sanji pointed out in a warm tone, the short statement somehow more meaningful than any of the flowery compliments he’d ever paid her.

Luciana smiled. “I was highly motivated,” she pointed out with a dry sort of humor, plucking at her blindfold pointedly. “Besides, I was raised in a monastery until I was eleven. My background is hardly what one would consider normal.” And really, after having died and being reborn, it was hard to see _anything _as truly impossible. The mindset required for the use of borderline supernatural abilities of any kind was perhaps easier for her to achieve than it was for others.

Scoffing, Zoro shook his head and flopped back against the main mast a bit too roughly. “A monastery,” he repeated dryly. “Of _course _you were.”

“I… can’t picture that,” Nami admitted, scrunching up her face for a moment before shaking her head. “But I guess it explains why you’re always more aware of what’s around you than everyone else despite... well, you know.”

Nose crinkling with amusement, Luciana nodded her agreement. “Most people are better at one of the three than they are any of the others, though that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to become proficient at all of them,” she explained, throwing her arms wide for emphasis. “For obvious reasons, I’m by far the best at Observation Haki, though I’m quite proficient at Armament at this point and can use Conquerer’s in a pinch. I wasn’t able to unlock either of those until _years _after I began working to master Observation; but to be fair, I was just a kid.”

If she neglected to mention that she’d been _born _with a little extra talent in Observation than most, well… she didn’t want to discourage any of them. Luciana was _good _at Haki, and it was important for her crew to believe that they could be as well. That she herself had somewhat of an unfair advantage to kickstart her learning didn’t have anything to do with _their _progress, but she knew that they –Nami and Usopp namely, who were just the smallest bit intimidated by their “monster” crewmates—wouldn’t see it that way.

Usopp nodded thoughtfully. “What does it feel like?” he questioned, his eyes wide and curious. “Do you think that we’ll be able to learn too? Is that what you’re teaching us?”

“Of course you can learn!” Luciana laughed, then tilted her head consideringly. “But no, I haven’t been specifically trying to help you unlock your Haki yet. All the Haki in the world won’t help you if you aren’t fast enough to dodge what you sense coming, or strong enough to land a proper hit, reinforced or no.”

As one, Nami and Usopp seemed to deflate. “Oh.”

Casually, Luciana reached out her hands and flicked each of them on their noses for the self-deprecating thoughts she just _knew _were rolling around in their brains. It earned her an indignant squawk from Usopp and a surprisingly intimidating growl from Nami, who took a swipe at her but missed (again). “Enough of that,” she scolded them. “No one is born a monster. You’ve got to work at it. That’s why I’m helping you. You’ll both be great at this by the time I’m done with you, trust me! Now did you want to hear what it feels like to use Haki or not?”

Her audience perked up at that, and she received several nods. Even Zoro seemed to be paying more attention now.

Satisfied with the response, Luciana took a moment to consider how she wanted to phrase this. Putting the feeling into words was… difficult. It would be like trying to explain colors to a person who’d been born blind: some things needed to be experienced to be fully understood. She’d do her best though. “From what I understand,” she began slowly, “most people experience basic Observation through hearing, with a few exceptions. I do as well to some extent. In the beginning, it was _all _I could do. It was a bit overwhelming at first, actually. Like being in a crowded room with everyone talking to you all at once, except most of what you hear isn’t intended for you.”

Rolling into a handstand, Luffy snickered to himself. “Keeping secrets from Ana is so hard!” he said matter-of-factly, his feet waving gently in the air as he started doing a few push-ups. No one batted an eye at his antics and accepted his words at face value. Luffy was a very physical person, and very rarely stood still. Allowing him to do whatever he pleased to burn off his extra energy actually worked better to ensure his concentration than almost anything else, barring the event that something else distracted him or he zoned out. (Luffy was the textbook definition of ADHD. Holding a complete conversation with him wasn’t impossible, but took careful managing. Little things like this, that may have been interpreted as rude from anyone else, usually helped to keep him at least somewhat engaged mentally.)

“You say that like I don’t know that you broke into my walnut stash last night.”

“You did _what _to my precious Ana-swan??”

“It… it wasn’t me!”

“Luffy.”

“Apologize, shitty rubber!”

“Waa! Don’t kick me!”

“SHUT UP!” Nami put an end to the argument between Luffy and Sanji with her fists, which left both boys sprawled out on the deck: Sanji swooning and muttering praise, and Luffy nursing a fresh welt on his scalp.

(Honestly, if Luciana didn’t know better, she’d have assumed that Nami had already unlocked her Armament. But she really was just that strong when she got worked up. Luciana was both sorely tempted to and yet utterly terrified of the idea of attempting to teach her to use Armament for a Fist of Love at some point in the future. The thought of Nami’s inevitable reign of terror with such a skill at her literal fingertips might be the only thing that scared Luciana more than Garp.)

Luciana cleared her throat delicately. “As I was saying,” she continued, “Observation usually starts out with hearing, though it can be more vision-based as well like mine depending on your need.” Like Usopp’s would be, one day. “From there, things tend to get a bit more… custom. There’s usually some element of clairvoyance involved though, which helps you sense attacks before they happen. I’ve heard some describe it as visions, but myself and a few others experience it more as… a reading of intent.” She frowned, and pushed her hands into her lap. “I personally read people better than anything else. My Observation has grown more attuned to compensating for my lack of vision rather than my hearing, so it’s easier for me to pick up on human details than it is for most, I think.”

“And Armament?” Nami questioned eagerly. (Perhaps _too _eagerly. Luciana was re-thinking her desire to teach their navigator this particular skill.)

Luciana smiled genuinely. “That’s much easier to explain. Observation is understanding the will of others. Armament is manifesting your own. It feels _strong. _And kind of warm and tingly when it manifests. Like flexing a muscle you didn’t know was there.”

“This is all extremely non-specific,” Zoro pointed out dryly with a flat stare, crossing his arms.

Shooting him a superior smirk, Luciana kicked out her legs leaned back on her hands. “Says the boy who got his ass handed to him by a Warlord,” she teased.

A vein in Zoro’s temple stood out in high relief as he jerked fully upright and reached for his swords. “Why you—"

Nami raised a fist threateningly, and the two of them piped down almost instantly.

“Will you tell us about Conqueror’s, Ana-swan?” Sanji broke in with an exhale of pungent smoke, presumably to avoid further derailment of the conversation.

Affably, Luciana nodded and acquiesced. “Conqueror’s feels… different from the others,” she said with a frown. “I still have a hard time with it. It feels like… like madness.”

“Madness?” Luffy repeated, flopping onto his belly and tilting his head at her curiously.

Luciana swallowed. “It’s… heady, forcing your will onto someone else,” she confessed, bowing her head. Of all three forms of Haki, Conqueror’s was still her biggest problem area. Trying to control it to the extent that she only targeted her enemies –or restrain it so she didn’t cause too much harm—was a task akin to wrestling a particularly ill-tempered alligator. Not impossible, but difficult and _dangerous_. It wasn’t a power she felt confident using too often, afraid that it would escape her and hurt her friends. She wasn’t like Luffy, always so confident and sure in himself and wanting only freedom. She wasn’t an inherently good person, and the fact that she had this power over other people unsettled her greatly. “Whenever I use Conqueror’s, it makes me feel like I can do _anything_, to anyone I want, and that’s… dangerous. This is the area over which I have the least control. It’s something I’ll be working to improve.”

Luciana’s Conqueror’s Haki was nothing short of the manifestation of her insatiable desire to _protect. _Of course, it didn’t help that the purest form of this desire seemed to involve the kind of protection that salted and burned the earth behind her. She’d always known that her particular brand of loyalty was dangerous, hadn’t she? Her inability to manage the sheer destructiveness of these instincts frightened her. It always had, ever since she’d been unable to save them all in Grey Terminal with the flames and pain distracting her. She could use Conquerer’s Haki at a small hyper-controlled scale now, but anything more than that? She didn’t have the courage to do that quite yet. She didn’t trust herself –someone who killed people for money and would do it again in a heartbeat if any one of the people she cared about asked her to—with the kind of power that _broke people’s minds_, even if the damage was (usually) temporary.

“What’s the color that you’re best at, Luffy?” Zoro asked, clearly realizing from Luciana’s dejected posture and pursed lips that this was all she was willing to share on the subject for now.

Luffy shrugged in response. “I’m not very good at the mystery power yet,” he said easily. “I’m just strong.”

Beside her, Usopp slumped into a depressed heap. “That’s so cool. We’ll never be as strong as Ana-san or Luffy,” he groaned piteously. He didn’t even move when Luciana flicked the end of his long nose again; and even Nami looked a little discouraged, though she tried to hide it.

Which wasn’t what she’d been hoping to achieve from this conversation at all. Hell if she knew how to turn the mood around at this point, though.

“Oi, Ana. You should teach them about Tiger Lords,” Luffy suggested, his voice firm.

Luciana paused for a beat to consider it, then grinned.

It was incredible, sometimes, how Luffy always seemed to know exactly what people needed.

“Souka. You’re right,” she agreed. “Alright you two, stand up!” she then commanded, leaping to her feet. Nami and Usopp warily followed, while Zoro, Sanji, and Luffy stayed where they were. To accommodate this, Luciana backed up to the other side of the deck before she drew her escrima from where they’d been buckled onto her boots and twirled them at her sides.

Both Usopp and Nami winced, and reluctantly assumed defensive stances. (They were good stances. Solid. Only three days of this, and they had already improved leaps and bounds from where they were before. Luciana was _proud _of them.)

“Right now, I’m the Tiger Lord. Neither of you will get to finish today until both of you defeat me,” she said solemnly, and stood her ground, waiting for an attack.

Nami and Usopp exchanged uneasy glances. Usopp shook his head vigorously and Nami glared at him fiercely, but was in the end unable to convince him to go first and reluctantly stepped forwards, picking up her bo staff from where she’d dropped it and gripping it tightly in her hands. She took a steadying breath, then rushed at Luciana, ready to swing.

Dodging neatly out of the way, Luciana delivered a stinging rap to Nami’s thigh. “Too slow,” she barked. “Tell me, what is strength?”

“What? How should I know? And what’s a Tiger Lord?” Nami snapped, twisting to the side and sweeping her bo staff at Luciana’s head.

“A Tiger Lord is strong!” Luffy called out cheerfully from where he’d seated himself between Sanji and Zoro. “So you need to be stronger! What is strength?”

“Being able to cut anything,” Zoro suggested.

Luffy bopped him on the head with his fist. “Wrong.”

“What is strength?” Luciana asked again, dodging Nami once again and delivering another sharp blow, this time to her upper arm.

“Being able to defeat your enemy with only one kick!”

“Being skilled enough to never miss a shot!”

“You’re both wrong!” Luciana called out brightly, then lunged forwards with both escrima and shoved Nami down onto the deck with a swift jab. She landed hard but almost silently, stubbornly biting down on any pained noises that she might have wanted to release.

Luciana smirked. It hadn’t escaped her notice that Nami was the only one (besides Luffy, who had already learned this lesson) who hadn’t answered yet. It had taken nearly two weeks for Luciana and the Tiger Lord to educate her brothers about what made a good Captain. They didn’t have that kind of time now, but Luciana rather thought that her nakama would be better able to understand this concept than her three stubborn wild boys had been. “Tell me, Nami-chan. Who’s considered the strongest man in the world?” she prompted, deciding to help her out a little.

Painfully, Nami pulled herself to her feet. “Whitebeard,” she answered hoarsely.

“Why?”

“He’s a Yonko.” The answer was followed up by another attempt to strike her.

Luciana’s smile was wide and constant now as Nami’s bo staff and her escrima met with a loud crack, thrilled that Nami was engaged and didn’t seem inclined to give up on what she must see as an impossible task. “He is, but how did he get there? What’s the difference between him and the other Yonko?” she pressed. No answer. “Do you know what Whitebeard calls the members of his crew?” she added, aiming a lazy kick for Nami’s knees.

“No.” Nami leaped out of range and eyed her, panting.

“He calls them his _sons_.” Once more, Luciana repeated the move where she knocked Nami to the deck, ignoring Usopp and Sanji’s weak protests. Nami had seen her coming this time, she noted with pleasure, even if she was unable to stop her. Instead, her young nakama focused on landing better and had flipped herself back up to her feet almost immediately. “Neither you nor Usopp will be able to defeat me in a duel today, Nami-chan,” Luciana stated bluntly. “I’m the Tiger Lord. I’m faster than you, and more experienced than you. I’ve had far better teachers than you have, and can easily physically overpower you in a fight.”

“Then why give us an impossible task?” Usopp demanded, his grip on his slingshot tightening as he practically snarled in frustration from the sidelines. “How are we supposed to beat you if you’re stronger than us?”

Luciana laughed. “Me, stronger than you? I didn’t say _that._”

“Eh?” Usopp spluttered, blinking rapidly as the gears spun in his mind and he tried to solve the puzzle that he only now understood that Luciana was presenting to him.

It was Nami though, who reached the correct conclusion first. (Luciana wasn’t surprised. Arlong’s defeat was still fresh in all of their minds, after all, and in Nami’s especially.) It was obvious when a triumphant grin suddenly split her face. “Luffy!” she cried. “Help me!”

Laughing delightedly, her little brother stood and settled his iconic straw hat firmly on his head. “Of course I will,” he declared. “You’re my nakama!” Drawing back his fist, he threw a punch in Luciana’s direction even as Nami started twirling her bo staff again.

Catching on almost immediately, Usopp let out a battle cry and started firing pachinko with unerring accuracy. Between the three of them, Luciana was hard pressed to defend herself without resorting to techniques she’d rather not use on board their very fragile ship. Once Usopp called in a grinning Zoro and Sanji however, it was all over. In almost no time at all, she ended up pinned face-down on the deck with Nami sitting smugly on her back, Luffy tying her legs up with his rubbery arms, and Zoro and Usopp each pinning one of her arms down with a well-placed foot. (Sanji just stood at her head both cooing praise at her martial prowess as well as apologizing profusely to Nami for being unable to defend her well enough, since he wasn’t able to kick a lady. They were all studiously ignoring him.)

“You didn’t tell us we could work together,” Usopp complained.

Wheezing slightly under Nami’s weight, Luciana giggled. “I didn’t tell you that you _couldn’t _either!” she pointed out slyly. “Besides, we’re _pirates_. Since when do we follow the rules? It’s our job to make impossible things possible! So well done, everyone. You’ve defeated the Tiger Lord,” she praised.

“Yahoo!” Luffy cheered, and let her go. The others quickly followed his example, and Usopp graciously helped her to her feet.

Brushing herself off, Luciana stepped over so she was positioned directly in front of Nami and Usopp and planted her hands firmly on her hips. “Here's the answer to my question. Strength is a commodity,” she told them seriously. “It’s something people will always try to gain more of, and it can be lost just as quickly. It can be bought and sold; and no matter how strong you think you are, there will always, _always _be someone out there who is stronger than you.” Something in her chest warmed a little with the way that Nami and Usopp were looking at her now. Nervous and in awe, but also as if they trusted her to look out for them despite her rather ominous declaration. When she voiced her conclusion, her tone was far gentler than it had been all day. “But it’s a commodity that you can borrow, too. And lend.”

“That’s why we’re nakama!” Luffy insisted, stepping right up behind his navigator and sniper and placing a hand on each of their shoulders confidently. “Because when one of us is weak, the others can be strong!”

“None of you have to be strong in the same ways as Luffy and I are,” Luciana agreed, nodding over towards Zoro and Sanji (who were very deliberately looking casual and uninterested, even if she knew they _were_) to indicate that they were included in this statement as well. “Be strong in your own ways, so you can carry us when we need it, and we’ll do the same.”

She couldn’t use swords for shit, after all. Her navigating skills were barely enough to keep her alive in the tame waters of the East Blue, she’d never used a ranged weapon in her life, and her cooking wasn’t anything to write home about. But that was the point of gathering a diverse crew, wasn’t it? They didn’t need another Luciana. (And for the love of all that was holy, they _certainly _didn’t need another Luffy.) They needed a Nami and an Usopp and a Zoro and a Sanji, with all of the respective strengths and weaknesses that this implied. Because combined, they had the potential to be strong enough to make impossible things _possible_. Like true pirates did. Luciana never wanted any of her nakama to feel like their weaknesses outweighed their strengths. She’d still help them to become stronger in her own way, of course. They all knew full well that the only way to survive the coming journey was through endless hard work; but so long as everyone on the crew was reasonably able to defend themselves, she didn’t expect them _all _to be brawlers. She didn’t _want _that either.

They’d be facing far worse than a Tiger Lord soon enough. They’d need more than just brawn on their side.

“…I still don’t get it. What the hell is a Tiger Lord?” Zoro complained, scratching at his head and squinting at her and Luffy as if he couldn’t quite decide if they were insane or not.

Hearing the question, Luciana couldn’t help but snort inelegantly, and she dropped her escrima back into their holsters so she could reach over and hand her two most recent victims a set of the towels she’d laid out on the deck earlier in the morning. They were both pretty sweaty, but since it was mostly (re: entirely) her fault, Luciana didn’t comment on it otherwise. Usopp mopped at his forehead gratefully, while Nami just threw her towel casually over her shoulders and crossed her arms while she waited for Luffy’s response.

“Oh! When we were arguing over who was going to be the Captain, Ana and an old man made us fight this giant monster-tiger,” Luffy said matter-of-factly, planting his hands on his hips in an almost-mirror of Luciana’s earlier pose and beaming sunnily. “That’s how I learned that good Captains work together with their nakama!”

“Giant… monster… tiger…” Nami repeated slowly, as if she couldn’t believe the words coming out of her own mouth.

Luffy’s smile widened to a degree that should have been impossible, if he weren’t made of rubber. “Yeah! It must’ve been forty feet long. It was _so cool_!”

Luciana nodded in sage agreement. She wasn’t sure what the hell exactly was in the water at Dawn Island, but the local wildlife (and she _was _including Garp in this statement) had absolutely _no _business being as gigantic and vicious as they were. It wasn’t natural. “Unfortunately, I don’t think any real Tiger Lords live outside of the jungle, so you had to make do with me today,” she apologized lightly.

“J-jungle?” came Usopp question, his voice high-pitched and disbelieving.

Luciana dipped her head in confirmation. “We were raised in a jungle. With mountain bandits,” she provided.

A beat of silence as the assembled crew processed that bit of information. Then, “_That explains so much,_” they chorused.

Luffy and Luciana just laughed, not for the first time eerily in sync.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I stole the whole "What is strength?" bit while fighting a giant animal from The Adventure Zone: Balance. It's just... so good. I couldn't resist throwing it in after Arlong Park because that lesson just fits in so well thematically with the character development there.
> 
> As always, thanks so much to everyone who left a comment! Reading them always makes my day.


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